Cookstown: Capital of Mid-Ulster

The District is punching above its weight in its drive to regenerate the local economy.

Over the course of the last decade, Cookstown has become the third fastest growing district in Northern Ireland in terms of employment growth. Whilst the area has suffered greatly at the hands of the recession, it is most encouraging that independent forecasts published in 2012, predict that Cookstown will be the first area in Mid Ulster to return to peak employment by 2016.

Cookstown’s significant development has not gone unnoticed. The Northern Ireland Regional Development Strategy 2035, identifies Cookstown as a ‘main hub’ suitable to perform higher service sector roles and having the greatest potential to achieve economic growth. Indeed Cookstown is proving that this new elevated status is well warranted, as the area gears up for the start of construction works at Northern Ireland’s Community Safety College at Desertcreat, Cookstown.

This £140 million project is one of the largest ever opportunities to be secured by Cookstown District Council and we eagerly look forward to the area hosting Northern Ireland’s new Training Headquarters for Police, Fire and Rescue and Prison Services. Construction of the new College is expected to start this year and when complete will provide a unique global exemplar. This major capital build will provide a welcome boost to the local economy as it is expected to create upwards of 2,000 construction jobs. Council has been working actively to ensure that local businesses get a foothold in the supply chain for this large project. At the end of 2012, Cookstown District Council hosted a week long series of events where all the shortlisted contract teams visited Cookstown to meet with potential local suppliers. Large numbers of businesses turned out for the events each day and at the end of a busy week, 675 face-to-face business meetings were held between the contract teams and local businesses and it is hoped that further opportunities will follow.

Targeted support for Cookstown’s business sector

Cookstown District Council strives to lead the way in maximising the investment of public funds to drive economic growth and stimulate job creation. Ongoing development and regeneration remain at the top of the Council’s agenda and over of the past decade, Council has spearheaded numerous economic and town centre initiatives, which has leveraged £10 million of public and EU funding into the District. Attracting this substantial level of investment for a District the size of Cookstown will enable Council to drive forward its key strategic objective of ensuring its local business community is well equipped to deal with the challenges ahead and well positioned to take advantage of opportunities arising from the recovery.

Cookstown District Council has an impressive and well established reputation of delivering practical and growth focused initiatives to our business sector. A range of new programmes funded by the Council and Invest Northern Ireland and part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland will collectively provide financial support of £1 million to 317 micro/small businesses in the Cookstown District up to 2015.

One of Cookstown’s most successful initiatives is our award winning

Multi-Sectoral Tendering Programme. This programme was launched by First Minister Rt Hon Peter Robinson MLA and helps 80 local companies to gear-up to win new work during the recession. At the mid point of the programme, many of the ambitious targets were exceeded, resulting in the programme scooping the Northern Ireland Local Government Award for ‘Best European Funded Project’ in 2012. The results to date of this programme are outstanding as it has created 53 new jobs, sustained a further 465 jobs in local businesses and tenders won exceed £12.5 million between the participating companies.

Further business support programmes to commence in 2013 are:

• Business Elevate Programme providing assistance to 84 companies in eight key business areas, such as sales, marketing, ICT, etc;

• Resource Efficiency Programme will support 40 businesses to identify and implement resource efficiencies in their use of raw materials, energy, water and waste;

• Tender Programme will take 50 small businesses to the next level of tendering and match participating businesses with potential buyers;

• Fastrack to Finance Programme will help 30 local businesses to assess the viability and financing of new business ideas;

• South West Export Programme is a sub-regional programme to help 105 first time export businesses across the region to break into new markets in ROI and GB.

Town Centre Regeneration: Building on Success

For the past decade, Cookstown District Council in conjunction with Cookstown Town Centre Forum has invested heavily in developing and promoting Cookstown town. This strong partnership approach has reaped huge rewards, including a £35 million investment in new private sector commercial/retail development, increase of 300,000 sq ft of commercial and retail floorspace and the creation of over 600 new retail jobs. The joint efforts to develop our town centre are paying dividends, as the most recent Retail Vacancy Rate Survey undertaken by Lisney in 2012 posits Cookstown as having the third lowest retail vacancy rate in Northern Ireland.

Cookstown is quite distinctive to many other towns in Northern Ireland, as it has a strong independent offering. To support local traders, Cookstown District Council has spearheaded and delivered many programmes to benefit our town centre over the last 10 years, including delivery of:

• One of the most successful ‘Living Over the Shops’ Schemes in NI, which leveraged investment of over £1 million;

• A High Profile Marketing Campaign promoting Cookstown as the ‘Retail Capital of Mid Ulster’;

• One of Northern Ireland’s first Urban Design Strategies to guide development in Cookstown town centre;

• A large Environmental Improvement Scheme on Burn Road, Cookstown;

• Numerous Shop Front Improvement Schemes;

• Retail Training and Development Programmes.

Minister for Social Development Mr Nelson McCausland MLA launched Cookstown’s new Town Centre Masterplan in 2012. A number of multi-million pound projects are in the pipeline in association with the Department for Social Development including:

• A Public Realm Scheme to enhance Cookstown’s streetscape character and key gateways to the town;

• An extensive Shop Improvement Scheme in the town centre to improve the front façade of business properties;

• A Town Centre Wi-Fi Service

• Revitalising vacant properties using a range of window media solutions;

• Production of new Branded Shopping Bags promoting Cookstown;

• A high profile Marketing and Promotional Campaign to highlight Cookstown’s strong retail offer at key periods throughout the calendar year;

• New Branded Street Banners throughout the town centre.

As a small local authority, Cookstown District Council believes that we have and continue to ‘punch above our weight’ in terms of our economic achievements and results. As evidenced above, much economic regeneration activity has taken place already, but there remains much more to do, to ensure Cookstown retains its rightful position as ‘Capital of Mid-Ulster’.

Adrian McCreesh, Chief Executive (Acting), Cookstown District Council,

Burn Road, Cookstown.

Tel: 028 8676 2205 Email:

chief.executive@cookstown.gov.uk

Web: www.cookstown.gov.uk