Newry has lost its way - Come to Newry People's Forum and help change that!

Opinion

Newry currently feels like a city that has lost its way. It’s still a fantastic place to live and bring up a family but the town that was once a thriving port and in more recent years hosted a vibrant nightlife currently feels unloved.

But there is much hope and optimism in us Newry folk, and this Thursday’s Newry Peoples Forum in the Canal Court hopes to capitalise on that with concrete ideas to help change our home place for the better!

You can see the lack of love in the small things - signs that haven’t been replaced, lights that don’t work, bins that aren’t emptied, traffic lights not finished, flowers not planted, weeds not removed.

You can also see it in the larger proposed projects that haven’t got off the ground, many through planning requirements or lack of wastewater infrastructure. There’s a list as long as your arm of projects that haven’t commenced even though many of them were announced in a blazing wave of publicity years ago. There’s no doubt that if even some these projects had already happened that Newry city currently would be a completely different place. Pearse’s Gate at Merchants Quay, Hotels in Hill Street/ Merchants Quay/ Belfast Road, Newry City Park, Newry Community Treatment and Care Centre and Inner City Greenway to name a few.

A Signature Project

A project is literally staring us in the face. Newry city has one unique selling point that our local authorities completely ignore for reasons best known to themselves - Newry Canal/ Newry Ship Canal! Built in 1742 the canal is the very first canal in Ireland. The ship canal gives access to tall ships and yachts from anywhere in the world but yet it isn’t promoted! in fact the unique Albert Basin is one of the most sheltered harbours available on the island and a marina there would be a no brainer, but yet again even though the Marina suggestion was mentioned numerous times by Newry City Park stakeholders as an essential part of the facility, it was ignored.

Destroying that Signature Project

It’s hard to believe but not only are those in charge not promoting the Canal, they are actively destroying it, for the benefit of Warrenpoint Port, with the proposed fixed bridge over the ship canal as part of the Newry Southern Relief Road preventing ships access even though a multi million euro bridge a couple of miles up-stream is letting the same ships in. You couldn’t make it up.

Daisy Hill Hospital is another example of the abandonment of Newry with the very people who are entrusted to look after our city letting its services be reduced and reduced.

While I firmly believe Newry City park will be a real game-changer for us all, like so many Newry projects when eventually completed, it will be great but not ‘world class’! It almost feels like Newry is deliberately not allowed to get 'above its station'

Newry Train Station is great but simple things like a shop and a lift that can hold a bicycle are absent - Portadown have them. Newry Leisure Centre is great but Lisburn Leisure Centre has much better facilities; The proposed Newry Theatre is replacing an ‘Arts Centre’ and it will be great but it will only hold 255 people and won’t even have a gallery space again despite project stakeholders mentioning this as essential again and again and will it compete with the Market Place?

All of the above is why this Thursday night’s, Newry People’s Forum meeting is so important. As a collective we certainly need to acknowledge where we are at but more importantly come up with solutions working along with the City’s statutory bodies. Make sure you get along.

The meeting takes place Thursday 8 October at 7.30pm in the Canal Court Hotel. All are welcome.