Newry and Mourne District Council

Newry City Centre Strategic Development Framework March 2004
Consequently, steps should be taken to relocate the taxi rank from its current location in Hill
Street to the Mall.
b. Prioritising Actions
Part (a) summarises all the aspects that this Framework Document recommends. Considering all
these aspects together realises the vision to create an accessible, vibrant city that can attract
visitors and provide open space, residential, office and leisure uses. The delivery of the overall
strategy should be considered in terms of short, medium and long-term actions.
The public consultation exercise highlighted a number of concerns that local people had and
which should be dealt with in the short term. The city is inaccessible and especially for disabled
people. The river and canal is out of view and not well used. The taxi rank is not properly
located. Signage is generally poor and especially to shopping car parks and then the links to the
shops are also poor. Car parking in general is limited and almost completely dominated by
surface car parking. The city lacks a major leisure use. All these issues can be tackled in the short
term.
An opportunity has been identified by a local interest group to construct a bridge across the
river and canal between the Buttercrane and St Mary’s Street. Immediate implementation of this
would improve access back and forward at the lower end of Hill Street and would link up to the
Bagenals Castle site. Street scope audits should be carried out to assess their suitability for
disabled use and any environmental improvement schemes should be carried out in conjunction
with bodies such as Shop Mobility, William Keown Trust and Disability Action. Disabled toilets
should be installed and more disabled parking spaces should be provided and protected through
enforcement for disabled use only. A signage strategy should be commissioned for the central
area and the removal of some of the surface car parking in favour of multi-storey parking should
be encouraged. A site has been identified in the opportunity sites below for a leisure centre, the
initial stages of which could be commenced. The forthcoming Area Plan has a role to play in
encouraging the redevelopment of suggested opportunity sites. The Area Plan should put policies
in place to improve the frontage along Merchants Quay and the Mall. The removal of walls from
around the cathedral and cars from Marcus Square would be the first steps in creating civic space
in these areas. Hill Street and the Squares should be predestrianised and the first step is to
remove the taxis and relocate them to the Mall. As part of pedestrianisation, opportunities
should be explored for creating rear servicing options for commercial properties on Hill Street.
North Street flats are due to be demolished in the near future and the land sold off. It is
imperative that any redevelopment of the site is carried out in line with the proposals in this
Framework document. Planning Service should identify this site in the Area Plan as an
opportunity site with a view to developing if for office use with car parking. The Council and the
City Centre Partnership have a role in ensuring that the site is developed to its maximum
potential. Options for controlling river levels and preventing flooding should be explored further
with the long term objective in mind of eventually removing the walls along the river through the
city centre so as to create a more pleasant riverside environment where the river is better
connected with the urban area. In the short term a weir or barrage could be constructed
downstream to control the river levels.
The medium term should see an increase in the number of car parking spaces being removed
from the central area between the canal and the river. In conjunction with this, a parking strategy
should be drawn up with Roads Service and landowners/ developers to ensure the construction
of multi-storey car parking in a ring around the central area. Such development should
incorporate good pedestrian links to the central area. Further options for more pedestrian river
crossings should also be considered, linking pedestrian routes back and forward across the river
and canal. Parking restrictions on main streets need to be put in place and a commitment to
enforcing these needs to be established. Redevelopment of buildings along the Mall and
Merchants Quay should be starting and it is important to ensure that proposals meet the
objective to raise the building height all along this area to 4 and 5 storeys in height. A design
guide should be prepared by Planning Service that will encourage a certain standard and style of
building along these streets. The possibility of developing offices above the market in order to
increase the attractiveness of the site should be considered. A lighting strategy should be
commissioned for the central area with a view to highlighting key features and buildings. The
buildings on Sugar House Quay should by this stage be redeveloped for office, restaurant and
residential uses. It is important to ensure that these buildings are kept intact to retain the
character of the street. Lands at the Island Site at the Albert Basin should be in the process of
being developed. Links from the this site to the central area will be important as will
consideration of the use of the Albert Basin for watersports. On the next stage of pedestrianising
Hill Street further routes to the rear of the properties should be sought to provide rear
servicing. The North Street flats site should be developed and if the car parking is implemented
within this development, it could provide an alternative to city centre on street parking.
Investigations should start at this stage to relocate the bus depot to a site to a site at Lower
Water Street. Such a development should be incorporated within a multi-storey car park. New
Ferguson McIlveen in association with Mentor and Scott Wilson Page No. 15