Wilson welcomes Carrickfergus Masterplan
East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson has welcomed the publication of the Carrickfergus Masterplan. Mr Wilson visited Carrickfergus Civic Centre last week and discussed the proposals with some local people who were pleased with its ideas and vision for the town.
The MP said:
“I want to congratulate all those who were involved in the exercise. I think that there is a need to give a strategic view of what can be done to improve the town and the report contains some very innovative ideas but will create massive challenges.
I think it is important to identify projects, regardless of how small, which can be quickly started and completed so that cynicism about the masterplan is not allowed to develop. There is nothing worse than having an announcement of what can be done to improve the town and then people see nothing actually happening on the ground.
Whilst the changes along the Marine Highway and the pedestrian links with the Castle and the Marina are essential for the well-being of the town, I am at a loss to see how practically such links can be established whilst the Marina Highway remains the main thoroughfare between Belfast and areas beyond Carrickfergus. I think that the idea of using the old town walls as a greater tourist attraction and giving access to them is important and I look forward to working with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency on this.
I think that one of the first quick wins would be to establish a pedestrian friendly linkage between the Tesco site through the Irish Quarter into the town centre. This is a rather depilated area at present and we have to accept that much of the food shopping will be carried out by the customers at Tesco, but there should be a way of trying to link those people into the town centre. Given the volume of shopping traffic which goes to Tesco, I would hope that the issue of how we get these people into the town centre would be addressed quickly.
I would be interested in the thinking behind the second marina at the Scotch Quarter end of the town. Given the tidal movements at this point, I do not know how practical a marina would be. However, it may well be that some engineering solution has been considered and if so it would certainly need to be spelled out in greater detail.
I think that it is important that there should be a debate about the master plan and hopefully the comments will be positive.”
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