Minister earmarks New Year start for Ballynahinch plan

Minister earmarks New Year start for Ballynahinch plan

21 December 2011

A BLUEPRINT for the future development of Ballynahinch town centre is to be drawn up.

Work on the document is due to start early in the New Year and will involve officials from the Department of Social Development (DSD), Ballynahinch Chamber of Commerce and Ballynahinch councillors.

Nelson McCausland, the Social Development minister, visited the town yesterday afternoon for a meeting with representatives from the town’s business community and local politicians.

Mr. McCausland said masterplans have been developed for a number of towns across Northern Ireland and have an extremely important role to play. He said he is acutely aware of how important environmental improvement schemes are for the regeneration of towns and pointed to the success of recent schemes in Newcastle and Downpatrick.

The Minister continued: “We are very keen to support town centres as they are essential to commercial life. Town centres are very important and one of the best way of supporting them is through the development of masterplans.

“This is an agreed vision of what you want the town centre to be as it develops into the future. Involved in the compilation of the masterplan will be the DSD, Down Council, local businesses and other statutory agencies so you have a package that everyone can buy into.

“Over the life of the masterplan you can take bite size chunks out of it and deliver them. One element in the masterplan for Ballynahinch would be a programme of public realm works.”

Mr. McCausland said there is clear evidence from the delivery of masterplans and public realm works in other towns across the Province that they make a clear difference to footfall for traders.

“In every town there are vacant premises. If we are going to sustain our town centres then we need to bring in more shoppers. We want to make Ballynahinch more attractive to draw shoppers here,” said the Minister.

“The number of visitors to Newcastle increased by 300 per cent following public realm work in the town. If we can do it there, we believe it can make a difference in Ballynahinch as well.”

Mr. McCausland said while the DSD is making £1.5m available for a public realm scheme in the market town and Down Council is committing £150,000, that’s not the end of the investment. Another DSD funding programme is available for shop front improvements with an additional £150,000 available.

Strangford MP Jim Shannon believes drawing up a master plan for the future development of Ballynahinch is vital. He said while almost £2m is being made available for an environmental improvement scheme, other funding could become available in the future to finance a range of proposals.

“While the proposed environmental improvement scheme is vital, having it at the centre of a new masterplan makes perfect sense and will allow for additional funding to be identified for other projects.”