Pat MulvennaNorth East Partnership

NSMC office

Armagh 30th April 2015

The NEP area

RIVER Project

£1.2million INTERREG IVA funding for the ‘Regeneration of Villages on Inland Waterways and Emergency

Rescue Services’.

Location Project INTERREG funding

Total value of project

Belturbet Construction of a replacement floating jetty, car parking, lighting and associated access requirements

£223k £236k

Drumaheglis Develop a multi-purpose building at the marina £250k £514k

Kilrea To provide a cycle path from the town to the river and to improve waterside access

£273k £529k

Portglenone To develop an additional jetty offering 12 new berths, canoe steps and environmental improvements

£320k £532k

Community Rescue Service

To provide 16 secure handheld radio sets to assist with search and rescue operations and water based training

£11K n/a

Project Objectives

• Four regeneration schemes implemented• To measurably increase local community

usage of the facilities• To measurably increase the visitor numbers to

the facilities• To measurably increase the visitor usage

satisfaction levels

RIVER project

RIVER project

Additional support included:

• Installation of electronic footfall counters

• Integrated Marketing support – including new brand, marketing strategy and PR campaign (2 maps, schools competition and ‘Best of Awards’)

• Workshops and meetings with location reps and other stakeholders

Progress so far?

• Easter 2015 event at Drumaheglis attracted well over 1000 people compared to a few hundred the previous year.

• Belturbet marina is now being used extensively by all sections of the community, particularly children and the elderly as it is safer and more accessible. The outdoor gym equipment is extremely popular. The new jetty is constantly full of boats even out of season.

• Portglenone is now established as a major node on the Bann and has a year round programme of festivals and sporting events.

• Through the improvements, Kilrea is starting to address the issue of the river being physically divided from the town.

Lessons learnt – critical success factors

Standardised data collection

Greater stakeholder collaboration

Position river-based activity within overarching Development/Tourism Plans

Integrated Marketing and PR

Thank you

pat.mulvenna@ballymena.gov.uk