Bringing Bangor back to NI's fun in the sun hot-spot: How £130m projects are to turn seaside city into daytrip paradise once more

This week final deals were signed off on a major redevelopment of part of the city’s seafront, but the long-awaited Queen’s Parade overhaul is just the first step in a series of moves designed to get day-trippers flooding to its Co Down shores.

The city has struggled since the turn of the century, but locals and people in positions of power are now looking back to the past; realising just how good the seaside was, and how it could be again with the right touch.

The plan is not to recreate what was, but to combine walks along the promenade and ice cream in large open areas by the shore with craft local produce, high-quality bars and restaurants, and the best of the local arts scene alongside large-scale tourist draws.

First off the bat is a £60m redevelopment of the Queen’s Parade seafront. On the cards for several decades, to many frustrated locals it’s considered little more than mirage, but this week senior Stormont officials confirmed to the News Letter that construction will begin on June 30.

Bangor once had a beach in the area, which to the chagrin of most residents and long-time visitors was scrapped in the early 1980s and replaced with a marina.

The first phase of the new project fills in a large car park on one side of Queen’s Parade, creating a pedestrianised area aimed at reconnecting Bangor to the sea with lawns, a children’s play area and food and drink kiosks.

That area, called Marine Gardens, will also be home to a separate £1m sculpture project from Northern Ireland’s most famous living artist, Colin Davidson. Three pieces drawing on Bangor’s history and culture will be built, which it’s hoped will act as a draw similar to the Kelpies in Falkirk.

The main site of Queen’s Parade, a derelict spot in the heart of the city, will see a cinema, cafe and retail units, apartments, offices and a “destination building” constructed over the next three years.

A £72m project also kicks in over the next couple of years, reworking a two-mile stretch of Bangor’s waterfront.

It ranges from improving facilities at popular sea-swimming spot Skippingstone Beach, to building a skate park near Luke’s Point, as well as turning an area yacht club into an international-grade watersports centre, upgrading child-friendly Pickie Fun Park, and boosting accessibility on Ballyholme Beach’s golden sands.

The city’s home to a popular August arts festival, Open House, which this year offers some of its best known names including Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody and author Colin Bateman. Festival organisers recently converted a derelict seafront courthouse into a music and arts venue that’s also due to expand under current plans.

But fears have been raised about parking, however. The Queen’s Parade project involves scrapping Bangor’s largest free car park; there are no plans to build a replacement, and the council is also nurturing plans of massively increasing fees in pay and display facilities – a far cry from resort towns on the north coast, which offer plentiful free parking all day long.