Recession Lisburn
Peter Cheney asks shoppers and businesspeople in Lisburn about how it can tackle its commercial challenges.
A town since the 17th century and a city since 2002, Lisburn forms one of the province’s major commercial hubs but is also experiencing growing shop closures as the recession drags on. One in five shops in the centre of the city are currently vacant, and proximity to Belfast and Sprucefield gives shoppers convenient alternatives. As in many places, rates and on-street parking restrictions are common complaints but business sources also point to the solutions that the private sector can deliver e.g. relocating office space into the area and making the most of the Balmoral Park agricultural show, starting at the Maze next year. Planning policies have come under criticism for prioritising cars (rather than making good places to live and shop in) and also restricting the development of shops, for conservation purposes. Many businesses, old and new, are also busy and some entrepreneurs have shown that taking risks in a recession can pay off.
An enthusiastic shopper, Helen Deane (left) praises Lisburn’s “lovely” shops and people. “There is a lot of shops closing but what can you do? We just try to go in and give them a bit of trade,” she says.
John Logan, meanwhile, lives outside Ballymena and shops in Lisburn three to four times a year with his wife. He finds that it compares well with Ballymena, Coleraine or Ballymoney but would like traffic wardens to be flexible. “I know they have to keep people moving a bit but I think they’re a wee bit severe on it.”
Joan Petticrew dislikes Bow Street Mall but prefers more traditional shops such as Greens, McCalls, Smyth Patterson and Sweeney’s newsagent. Lisburn Square, in her view, is “beautiful” and has a lot of potential. “It would be lovely if they had something playing in the background, like they have in Italy,” she comments, although admitting that good weather is also needed.
Nick Rose argues that more office space is needed to increase footfall during the day and into the early evening. The car park opposite the health centre is “the obvious place to do that”. The 2010 masterplan for the city centre proposes a smaller car park with three new office buildings on the site.
Greg Warner (right) is disappointed to see the closure of Game and strongly blames the banks for the economy’s current state. A familiar problem returns: “We are used to this problem of parking so much that we bear it as the norm.”
Based in Market Square, florist David Lamont’s family business is “extremely busy” but he is also frustrated that the area’s historic quarter status is holding back his business. Shoppers, he says, will opt for shops in newer premises and are attracted by free parking at supermarkets, rather than paying in town centres. “I think it’s time that a lot of the revenue to cover so much should be placed upon those places that are taking away the business,” he comments.
Lamont also found no real change in the rates, even though property values have decreased, and this “makes it impossible to develop new businesses.”
The Balmoral Show’s move to the Maze in 2013 could open up real opportunities, according to Lisburn’s Chamber of Commerce President.
John Steen wants proper transport infrastructure (e.g. bus lanes) put in place to link visitors to town centre shops and cafes. Country dwellers become ‘set in their ways’ when shopping and those routines should continue for many years to come.
“The brand ‘city’ is misleading,” he ventures. “We are a good provincial town. We have got to niche that and encourage the coffee culture.”
Eighteen per cent of ground floor shops are currently vacant but some areas feeling it more keenly than others. He points out that the Premier Inn hotel has had to build an extra wing. Its guests regularly shop in the town centre and shops are still sustained by daily purchases from local residents. The Yellow Door café, opened two years ago at the height of the recession, is a particular success story.
The chamber has no set view on locating John Lewis at Sprucefield but does want a speedy final decision. While Steen has a list of suggestions for government (e.g. an airport rail link, car park charges at out-of-town shopping centres), he emphasises that many of the solutions must involve “self-help amongst ourselves”. Momentum only comes when work is co-ordinated.
Lisburn City Council is undertaking a strategic review of its regeneration master plan, based on pre-recession research in 2005 and 2006. “We have a great infrastructure for living and working,” Steen points out, “and we want to get office workers back into the town as soon as we can.”
The most radical thoughts come from Tom McClelland, an estate agent and transport campaigner based on Bachelors Walk.
“Business is geared towards car-dependent retailing and with the rising fuel costs and motoring costs, we have a large void area outside the main shopping strip given over to car parking,” he explains. Despite “a lot of noise” about car parking charges, these are a “miniscule part of running a car.”
A one-hour shop in Lisburn city centre costs 60p in on-street charges. McClelland laments that meeting the needs of vehicles is still seen as more important than place-making for people. Instead of tree-lined boulevards, the city has through routes for single-occupancy cars. He wants that form of transport “constrained” in favour of more active walking and cycling routes “and dismal car parks should be built over to provide affordable homes.”
McClelland is pleased with the council’s regeneration of the historic quarter and how it has encouraged ‘living over the shop’.
Planning policies which encouraged out-of-town shopping centres in the 1980s and 1990s have “amplified” the impact of this recession with fewer shops now than 10 years ago. That said, business in Lisburn “is not suffering as much as towns that are further away from Belfast” and vacancies will lead to landlords rethinking rent levels. This, in turn, could encourage “local traders who can bring a different feel and experience to [that of] the bland multiples.”
“Betwixt and between” is how Railway Street jeweller Mervyn Shannon sums up business, pointing out that Lisburn lacks the attention and funding given to the north west. “I am pleased for Londonderry to be called City of Culture,” he comments. “I think it’s fantastic what they have done up there but unfortunately we’re too close to Belfast.”
The urban area populations of Derry and Lisburn were 85,000 and 75,900 respectively in 2010, according to official estimates. However, in terms of the whole council area’s population, Lisburn was larger with 117,800 residents to 109,800.
In summary, Shannon wants to see more car parking, a stronger night-time economy and lower rates from the council “to make it more attractive for people to open shops.”
