Downpatrick police station development draws nearer

Downpatrick police station development draws nearer

4 April 2018

PLANS to develop a major new retail and commercial centre in Downpatrick have taken a significant step forward.

The Department of Communities has completed the purchase of the town’s former police station which has been earmarked for a multi-million pound town centre regeneration initiative.

Plans are due to be drawn up shortly to redevelop the former Irish Street base and a number of adjacent empty properties to provide a new retail and commercial centre which could become home to leading High Street retailers.

The government department is working alongside Newry, Mourne and Down Council to help bring new investment to Downpatrick with the Irish Street plan involving the demolition of a number of vacant buildings.

The redevelopment is designed to open up a huge area at the rear of the former PSNI base with the proposed development site also including the Irish Street car park.

No parking spaces will be lost as a result of the initiative which could also pave the way for a new pedestrian linking the car park with St Patrick’s Avenue.

Council officials, who are also liaising with Transport NI, are determined to deliver a major regeneration scheme in the town centre and are excited at the development potential the Irish Street scheme offers. 

Leading brands such as Marks and Spencer and Home Bargains, along with several other big names, are keen to invest in Downpatrick, but cannot identify suitable accommodation.

Local councillor Dermot Curran has welcomed the purchase and says this will allow work to start on compiling a development brief designed to encourage developers to come forward.

He is confident the redevelopment can provide Downpatrick with a significant economic boost and attract more shoppers to the town.

“The Irish Street scheme has the potential to act as a catalyst to encourage more leading retailers to come to the town,” he said.

“There is a huge pocket of land available for redevelopment and I am as keen as others to see the detail of the development brief.

“It is my understanding that council officials are continuing to engage with potential developers and perhaps their specific requirements can be met in the proposed new retail and commercial centre.”

Cllr Curran is also keen that once work on the development brief has been completed, an information evening can be held to provide members of the Downpatrick business community with an overview of what could potentially happen in Irish Street.

He said this was a part of the town which has been “starved of major investment over recent years” and needed a boost.

He also welcomed plans for an environmental improvement scheme in Irish Street which is expected to start later in the year.

Cllr Curran added: “The Irish Street proposal has the potential to create much-needed business space to satisfy the demands of leading retailers keen to invest in Downpatrick. The arrival of new investment will create jobs and raise the town’s economic profile.

“New business will create an economic stimulus and attract more shoppers which will hopefully provide a spin-off for existing traders. More significantly, it will kick-start the regeneration of Irish Street.”

Cllr Cadogan Enright has called for the station to be kept in community ownership and preserved as part of a “community-led development.” 

He also said suggestions that Marks and Spencer or other major outlets were considering coming to the area made solutions to traffic congestion all the more important.

“Transport NI must be moved from their stance of refusing to spend money in Downpatrick,” he remarked.

“Improved access via a one-way system between Irish Street and St Patricks’s Avenue around the main town car park is critical to both attracting new development as well as reviving the old retail centres of Irish Street, Market Street and St Patrick’s Avenue.

“This development cannot be led by Newry-based bureaucrats. It needs to be led by the local elected representatives and community leaders based on the widely accepted ‘Downpatrick Masterplan’ which was a blueprint for the development of the town widely consulted upon and adopted by all elected representatives and paid for by the old Down Council.”

Cllr Enright added: “We need this long-standing vision of development of Downpatrick’s town centre to have at least equal precedence to recent plans for Newry’s town centre.”