Further delays on Bangor regeneration makes local council look like 'a joke', says alderman

Delays of up to 18 months on the rejuvenation of the centre of Northern Ireland's newest city are "a joke," a local politician has claimed.

Independent Unionist Alderman Bill Keery criticised plans for regeneration in Bangor at a recent special meeting of the Ards and North Down council Planning Committee, which saw elected representatives again agree to the Queen's Parade redevelopment plan after a long Stormont hold-up.

Alderman Keery said he was "disappointed" that no change would be visible to the city centre before the end of 2023.

He said: "This project that we have been working on for so many years won't start until the latter end of next year - that concerns me.

"I was first elected in 1997, and we were talking about a Queen's Parade development even then. I was the only person on the Planning Committee then who is still on the committee now - and I am still being told it is over a year away.

"We're a joke to the people outside. We shouldn't be giving them dates, we should be giving them something they can see like a digger at the site, to show something is moving. I'm not very happy with it."

The £50m regeneration project for Bangor was finally given the green light in March after being held up in a Stormont department for over a year over flooding concerns. The proposed scheme, developed by Bangor Marine Ltd, will see extensive work to a run-down area of the new city.

It will involve the building of new homes, a 66 bedroom hotel, a cinema and leisure facility, a public realm scheme, new streets, an events space and new cafes and restaurants.

The former B&M Bargains, Oxfam and Hospice shops on Main Street will be demolished, as well as other buildings on King Street, Southwell Road and Queen's Parade. The developer said the project will create approximately 100 jobs per annum during construction, and 700 further jobs once it is "operational."

In May, Bangor was awarded city status as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, along with seven other towns across the United Kingdom.

A representative for the developer replied to Alderman Keery at the planning meeting: "I am sure that frustration is shared by a number of the committee members, but we need to step back for a moment and be conscious of the sheer scale of the development that is proposed.

"There are a number of pre-commencement conditions, and your planning team have worked very hard alongside ourselves to reduce down those pre-commencement conditions, and look at ways to fast-track the scheme once it gets on site. But there are some significant conditions that need to be worked through."

Another representative for the developer told the Planning Committee: "For us this is a collection of buildings, an amazing opportunity but a significant development. Each one of those buildings has a massive amount of work in the overall £50 million scheme.

"The disappointment that there won't be a digger on site until next year doesn't mean there won't be energy from people working on the project. Taking the drawings and information from this stage to get on site, having the building's full application lodged, full construction details developed, and getting diggers and people on the ground - this is substantial.

"I do agree there is frustration if there is no activity on site, but there is a huge amount of work which has to go on in the background to get to planning drawings and construction drawings. Activity will be taking place, but not visibly."

Alderman Keery replied: "I understand the amount of work that will be involved in getting all the loose ends tied together. But the general public are sick, sore and tired of listening to councillors giving them dates when work at Queen's Parade will be started.

"Even if there was the ability to have a JCB knock down a building, and to trail it as the start of the Queen's Parade development, that would convince the general public this council means what it says."

A council officer told the committee: "There are some 58 conditions attached to this development, and a lot of those are detailing further studies that have to be done. Some of those are works that have to be done within a certain timeframe - for example, no building demolition can take place March 1 and August 31 until it has been assessed by a competent ecologist, in terms of active bird nests etc.

"Others involve breeding bird surveys being updated between particular dates, as well as archaeological work which has to be carried out. A lot of these conditions come about as a result of consultation responses. Works have to be carried out with an integrated design team within the council to forward the work on the public realm that is going to be delivered.

"And it would be remiss not to mention the fact that the developer could have been on site now already if it hadn't been for the 13 months this was before the (Stormont) department. But I understand the frustration of members.

"I would also reiterate - our Planning department cannot commit a developer to actually carrying out works. The planning permission will have a time condition attached, condition number one, which requires that the development be begun before the expiration of five years. But it is not legally possible to compel a developer to start sooner than that."

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