Write a commentOver 120 people attended a public meeting hosted by Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade on the 2 June to debate the threat posed by Out of Town retail developments.
Presentations were delivered by Mr Glyn Roberts, NIIRTA, Mr Declan McChesney, Cathal Brothers, Mr Stephen Campbell, Save Our City campaign and Mr Pat McBride, Planning Consultant. The audience included concerned citizens, business representatives and local politicians including Minister Conor Murphy MP MLA, Danny Kennedy MLA and Micky Brady MLA.
President Mary Doran stated, ‘Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade is committed to protecting the vitality and viability of Newry City through sustainable development and effective regeneration. Newry Chamber has been, and continues to be at the forefront of protecting, supporting, promoting the development of Newry City Centre as a major commercial hub on the island of Ireland’.
‘We, in the Chamber envisage that the proposed mixed use development at Carnbane Way will have devastating consequences for the future vitality and vibrancy of Newry City Centre. The proposals include a major superstore and 66 business units which will inevitably overtime become retail units; thus creating a retail village on this ‘Out of Town Centre site’. This will undoubtedly drain the lifeblood away from our city centre leading to the widespread closure of our independent retail stores and long established family owned businesses creating mass unemployment and a deserted and derelict City Centre’.
‘The developer’s plans for a cinema and restaurants on the site will also have a devastating impact on Newry’s night-time economy and services sector’. President Mary Doran added, ‘There are numerous case studies of cities and towns across the UK and Ireland which have been decimated by similar developments and we cannot allow this to happen to our city’.
President Mary Doran challenged the developers claims of creating new jobs stating ‘these are not new jobs, they come at the expense of others; in fact case studies prove that there is a net full time job loss rather than job gain with such developments. Also, the promise of immediate construction jobs to local contractors is misleading; this development is an Article 31 Planning Application and as such it could take years for a final decision to be made by the Minister’.
‘The precedent this development will set for further ‘Out of Town’ retail development in Newry will gravely jeopardise major investment currently planned for the City Centre, including the planned expansions of the Buttercrane and The Quays shopping centres, with a combined investment valued at almost £400million; neutering the prospect of job creation that this investment would create’.
Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade is disappointed at Newry & Mourne District Council’s decision to support the proposal for the development at Carnbane Way. Whilst commending the efforts of Mr Stephen Campbell from the ‘Save Our City’ campaign on collating over 200 signatures from local businesses and over 3,000 signatures from local citizens opposed to this development, President Doran once again urged local political representatives who supported this development to rethink their decision and to take on board these important views of the local electorate’.
President Mary Doran concluded, ‘We fully welcome the fact that the developers want to invest £100million in Newry; but it cannot be at the expense of our city centre, local businesses and local jobs. Newry Chamber has identified over 85 acres of development opportunity sites within the city centre boundary. In accordance, with the defined limit of Newry City Centre, Newry Chamber advocates that land within this limit is the only consideration for the location of retail development’.
