'Hundreds of jobs' could be created under harbour regeneration plans
Hundreds of jobs could be created under new plans to transform Coleraine Port, according to Harbour Commissioners.
A hotel, student accommodation, industrial units to service off-shore windfarms and an international rowing centre are among proposals revealed to members of Stormont’s Infrastructure Committee last week.
Commissioners led by vice-chair Richard Connor were in Belfast to persuade politicians to alter legislation governing Northern Ireland’s trust ports.
Agreement would secure increased borrowing limits and powers to develop land no longer needed for “harbour purposes.”
The potential for new governance arrangements has already prompted Coleraine Commissioners to draw up a ‘2050 masterplan’ for developing the port.
Asked how its implementation could affect employment at the harbour, the consultant behind the plan, Bobby Farren, said: “The numbers haven’t been worked through but we are looking at hundreds of jobs being on that site as opposed to seven.”
He continued: “We are finalising our 2050 strategy and within that there’s a potential hotel, student accommodation. We are also looking at a high-performance rowing centre for Olympic athletes.
“Because we have ten times more gold medallists, per head of population, than anywhere else in the UK and the current rowing centre is operating from the base of a Chinese (restaurant).
“We are also looking at industrial units because there are plans for a wind farm off the North Coast by 2035 and that’s gong to need serviced.”
Mr Farren said a need for large units had also been identified for fledgling businesses that had outgrown their premises in the borough and were forced to move elsewhere
Earlier, Richard Conor spoke of the decline in manufacturing and other sectors that had contributed to some of he worst deprivation in the UK.
Among the statistics cited was the fact hat wages in Coleraine are £5,000 less than the NI average and obesity rates are the highest in the province.
“I’ll put I bluntly. If you stood in our harbour, three streets away is the poorest postcode in Northern Ireland and the seventh poorest in the UK.”
But, he said, the Harbour he said could play a vital role in turning the economic situation around.
“With critically balanced economic growth, Coleraine Harbour can be pivotal in converting a long term intervention into lasting economic capacity.
“Acting as a long overdue catalyst for investment enterprise and employment, skills regeneration and opportunity while reconnecting the town of Coleraine to the commercial potential of the River Bann and the wider North Coast.
Richard Conor also spoke of the unique “North Coast lifestyle” and potential to cater for recreational boat owners.
“Currently on our river we have 200 berths and we would would be hoping to get that up to 450,” he continued.
“That would create a critical mass and then you need your marine services and all the training and job creation.”
Bobby Farren went on to remind the committee there was no maritime college in Northern Ireland. That’s why Coleraine Harbour Commissioners are looking into the possibility of Northern Regional college becoming a ‘feeder college’ to one in Glasgow.