Ballymena joins new Town Centre ‘fightback’ group

BALLYMENA business people are at the forefront of a campaign aimed at reversing the decline in Northern Ireland’s town centres.

And they formed part of one of the largest ever delegations of local Chambers of Commerce & Traders Groups which met last week with the First & Deputy First Ministers to press for urgent action to address the huge challenges facing our local town and city centres and the wider local retail sector.

The meeting was organised by the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) and comprised of a dozen different local business organisations. NIIRTA also discussed at the meeting its recently launched Town Centre First document which has over 50 solutions on how to regenerate town centres and revamp the local retail sector.

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Thomas McKillen, President of Ballymena Borough Chamber of Commerce and Industry attended the meeting and said that it had been very beneficial.

He said “Town Centres across the province are facing a range of problems at the present time and Ballymena is no exception. I was delighted to attend this meeting in Stormont and to have the opportunity to address the First and Deputy First Ministers. They are certainly well aware of the issues and urgent action is needed to regenerate our town centres. We will continue to lobby in the coming months to ensure that appropriate action is taken to address this range of issues”

The 12 Business Organisations also announced that it is their intention to establish a new Campaign Group, entitled the Town Centre Alliance to spearhead an extensive lobbying campaign to save Northern Ireland’s struggling town centres. All interested Business Groups and local Chambers of Commerce will be invited to join the Town Centre Alliance.

NIIRTA Chief Executive Glyn Roberts said:

“This was a very useful and productive meeting in which all 12 organisations put forward solutions to the problems facing our struggling town and city centres to the First & deputy First Ministers’

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“Northern Ireland has the highest shop vacancy rate in the UK and lost 1000 small shops last year. This figure is likely to double by the end of this year, leaving nearly 1 in 3 shops vacant”

“Key issues such as developing a new Car Parking Strategy, new Retail Planning Policy, extending the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme, establishing Enterprise Zones and the need to progress the current Corporation Tax talks were all discussed”

“All our organisations are intending to establish a new campaign group-the Town Centre Alliance to spearhead an extensive lobbying campaign to reverse the decline in our town centres and local retail sector. It is our aim that the Town Centre Alliance will be the largest ever coalition of business organisations from every part of Northern Ireland”

“We plan to invite any interested business groups to join the Town Centre Alliance and to ensure we get action from Governments at Stormont and Westminster”

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“Our next steps will be to request meetings with the Executive’s Economic Sub Committee, the Secretary of State and the local party leaders”

The business organisations who attended the meeting included NIIRTA, Ballymena Borough Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Belfast Chamber of Trade, Derry/Londonderry City Centre Traders Forum, Banbridge Chamber of Commerce, Dungannon Traders Forum, Lisburn Road Business Association, Portadown Chamber of Commerce, Association of Town Centre Management, Bangor & Holywood Town Centre Management, Roe Valley Chamber of Commerce and Newcastle Chamber of Commerce.