Invest NI came in for some criticism at a recent ABC Economic Development & Regeneration committee meeting, over the fact that most of their spare industrial landholding capacity is in Craigavon, while Banbridge has no additional capacity, and Armagh very little.
Mandeville Industrial Estate, in Craigavon, is largely undeveloped, with 95 acres still available out of a total 99.
Craigavon also has additional capacity at Charlestown Road Industrial Estate (3.77 available acres) and Halfpenny Valley Industrial Estate in Lurgan (12.30 available acres).
With 111.07 available acres located in the Craigavon area, out of 118.47 unused acres in the ABC Borough, Craigavon concentrates 93.7 per cent of available Invest NI land zoned for industrial purposes.
In all, Craigavon has 307.01 acres of industrial land – including land already in use – out of 370.48 acres (82.6 per cent) in the ABC Borough.
Scarva Road Industrial Estate, in Banbridge, has no spare capacity. The same goes for Hamiltonsbawn Industrial Estate in Armagh, while Edenaveys Business Park, also in Armagh, only has 7.4 available acres left out of 24.
Following a presentation by an Invest NI delegation, Councillor Joy Ferguson (Alliance, Banbridge DEA) pointed out that the demand was there in Banbridge for more industrial land: “For me, it is a standout figure that there is no available land in Banbridge, and out of ABC Council, Armagh and Craigavon do have some potential to develop, but unfortunately for the Banbridge area there is zero land available.
“Now, on the Scarva Road in Banbridge, we do have two enterprise parks, one that is at capacity, one that requires further development, but there are businesses there such as Alternative Heat, Clearhill, Kane Group, that could expand, and there are other businesses who would like to locate within the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor and Banbridge.
“Are there any specific plans to develop land to really help local economic growth and regional balance across the ABC Council area?”
An Invest NI representative replied: “These are the conversations that I will be having with Paul [Tamati, director of Development, Community & Wellbeing], to talk about specific needs right across the council.
“We’ll need to get into it at a local level, talking to the enterprise agencies themselves to understand what’s stopping their further expansion, and also what’s preventing the businesses from moving out of the enterprise agencies.”
Cllr Ferguson stressed that increasing land capacity for industrial purposes, in Banbridge, was an urgent matter: “It is good to know that these conversations are happening, and that you recognise that there is a vacuum here in Banbridge.
“Businesses tell us on a regular basis that part of their problem is they have nowhere to expand to, and I only had that conversation recently with a big business in Banbridge.
“So, those are the conversations and the research that needs to be taking place quite urgently with respect to Banbridge.”
The Invest NI representative explained that the agency had no plans to purchase additional land at this stage: “Currently, our plans are to invest in our existing land holdings for now, and that’s where our focus will be at this point in time.
“And then, as we get into conversation at a local level and understand the need, we’ll look at the possibility of bringing forward cases for additional land.”
Alderman Ian Burns (UUP, Banbridge DEA) explained that Banbridge and Dromore desperately needed more industrial land: “I have represented Banbridge for 29 years now. They have 25.13 acres and with no availability.
“Banbridge and Dromore sit on the Belfast-Dublin economic corridor. It’s handy for ports, Warrenpoint, Dublin, Belfast, and yet we don’t have any land available.
“It’s something that we desperately need to look at. We do have conversations with businesses who are looking to expand, but they don’t want to move miles away, they want to expand in the Banbridge area, from Dromore to Loughbrickland, right across the corridor.
“There’s plenty of land there, it’s only about getting availability, and we did lose some economic land there not so long ago because it was turned back into farmland.
“We have lost a number of major employers there, Lotus/Delta Shoes and the creamery, two major investors and two major employers.
“I was disappointed in your map that Banbridge didn’t even feature on it, so maybe that says it all.”
Councillor Thomas O’Hanlon (SDLP, Armagh DEA) could not understand why most of the available capacity was concentrated in Mandeville Industrial Estate only: “Out of the land that Invest NI have at the minute in ABC, 80 per cent of it is on one site [i.e. in the Craigavon area]. Where else would that be acceptable?
“I’m aware of live and actual examples where businesses have walked away. We have lost one to manufacturing in County Monaghan, and even more recently one who was looking for lands in ABC.
“The conversation was more about Lisburn, rather than about accommodating people within ABC.
“Whenever a business comes, they’re telling me that they’re interested in Armagh or they’re interested in Banbridge.
“There’s no point in saying to them ‘All right, but we have land down the road in Mandeville’.
“They’re not interested in it and that’s where it’s deeply frustrating for elected members.
“All our enterprise agencies and parks are full. What’s stopping them growing is that people who are in them can’t get to the next stage, they cannot get to the bigger units to allow the newer businesses to start off in the incubation units.
“I would be very keen to see a plan coming forward that would see land purchased in places like Armagh city and Banbridge.
“It is not good enough for people in other parts of the borough and other places in Northern Ireland to say ‘Okay, we’re going to hang all our hats in Mandeville’.
“Invest NI, in my experience, I always joked that they’d get a nose bleed if they got out of Belfast.
“There’s been too much Belfast-centred focus over many years, and it’s people in rural communities and in border communities who are crying out for investment, and who are saying ‘Enough is enough’, so I would be really keen to see some proposals brought forward for land purchases in Armagh.”
