Roundtable meetings over NRC closure

Over the next few weeks members of the Ballymoney Town Centre Partnership, Ballymoney Chamber of Commerce and officials from local schools who use the facilities at the NRC Ballymoney Campus are planning to meet to discuss the issue. It is hoped that their views will then be brought back to Council for inclusion in their consultation document.

The issue was raised during a recent Council meeting after members expressed grave concerns over the proposed plans to amalgamate and relocate the two local campuses to one new build in Coleraine.

The Leisure and Amenities Committee report explained: ‘The Northern Regional College has published for consultation its Business Improvement Plan 2010-2016. The closing date for comments is 23rd July. Phase 3 of the plan (2014-16) proposes that Ballymoney campus and Coleraine campus will be replaced by one new build in the Coleraine area.

‘In a letter to Council the Northern Regional College Director and Chief Executive advised that the strategic development included new purpose-built accommodation and upgraded services for students. The improvement plan maps out the college’s proposed developments until 2016 and the consultation exercise would give students, parents, business partners, suppliers and schools the opportunity to have their say in how they shape their future. He pointed out that the college had a huge legacy of excellence and its future would focus primarily on continuing and ever-improving the quality of education of its students and the maintenance and development of its close relationship with Council.

‘The Chairman expressed his serious concern at the impact such a decision will have on the town and the local economy in general. Noting from the report that redundancies are inevitable and while accepting that the college hope to manage the staff reduction through leavers and redeployment, he said that further job losses in the borough is not good news.

‘He advised that in preparation for Committees consideration and response to the proposals he wanted to hear at first hand the views of local schools, particularly those who currently have close working arrangements to the Ballymoney Campus. He also wished to take the opportunity to seek the views of groups representing the retail, commercial and business sectors as well as the community and voluntary sectors. He suggested that this would best be done by convening a roundtable meeting and indicated that he had asked the Officer to make arrangements for this.

‘The Chairman referred members to Council’s consideration of this matter in 2004 when Council was unanimous in its opposition to this move and resolved to oppose it. At that time schools, local business groups and our neighbouring Council, Moyle, gave their support to Council’s case.

‘The Chairman said he did not see why the new campus has to be sited in Coleraine and Council should seek to ensure that the new proposals are rigorously examined and that Ballymoney is not disadvantaged. He referred to the many agencies who had moved from their Ballymoney base to elsewhere and expressed the view that there must be some better equity in the location of jobs and services and Ballymoney should get its fair share.

‘He also advised committee had he had made initial contact with the Chamber of Commerce and they, too, were stunned at this proposal which could see the loss of this educational base with the knock-on effect of job losses in the town, following on as it does on the substantial loss of jobs suffered in recent years with closure of many manufacturing plants in the town. In addition to this issue regarding the Northern Regional College the Chairman said that committee must press the case for jobs and investment in this town and borough as a matter of priority and the proposed meeting with the Economy Minister would provide an opportunity for a case to be put.’

It was proposed by Cllr Evelyne Robinson seconded by Alderman Frank Campbell that committee agree the Chairman’s approach to considering the proposed consultation.

However speaking at last Monday’s Full Council meeting members again discussed their worries and called on the need for a detailed response to the business consultation document.

Cllr Ian Stevenson said the closure would be ‘detrimental to the town’ stating: “We have already lost the Housing Executive, John Street, the Electoral Office, banks etc - this is not a healthy state to be in.”

Alderman James Simpson also urged Council to provide a detailed response reiterating: “It is important we do. However there’s timing problems here and we need to keep an eye on this and make sure Council’s views are endorsed.”

In response Cllr Mervyn Storey said he was having a meeting soon with ‘the person who represents the college’.

He continued: “The town has lost a lot in the last number of years and I feel we have come off worse. I can understand the reason an rationale to relocate and centralize. However I think we always end up as the poor relation - we have seen this with the hospital, Housing Executive, Job Centre etc.

“We need a response to the consultation. We need to make people aware that this town has suffered on many fronts. If we don’t fight this then we’ll could have no services left other then the major schools.”

Cllr Evelyne Robinson said she concurred with Cllr Storey and said it was ‘absolutely essential’ that Ballymoney keep the level of education and training within the town.

She added: “The loss of such facilities will result in no jobs and the young people not getting the education needed to give the borough an advantage. It’s an alarming situation and it seems on a daily basis that facilities are being told to cut their budget.

“We need third level education - it is important to this borough.”

Alderman Frank Campbell concurred with all the comments concluding: “This is something we really need to look into.”