Craigavon? - 'The Place to Be'

Feature submitted by Dempsey - DSD Information Office

Minister Margaret Ritchie MLA has announced a new Framework for the Craigavon area. So where is Craigavon? What will the Framework do?

Most people who have nothing nice to say about Craigavon have never lived there. Imagine if you told them it was the ‘place to be’.

Those who do still live there have probably done so for many years. Having moved there in 1976 with my family, who are still locals, I likened Craigavon as the Skoda of towns. Everyone likes the look of it, knows the engineering is equal to cars of alleged better quality, but no one wants to own one.

Craigavon has everything people would want in a town. (Well at least someone thinks so) I hear you say. Let me try to convince you. Roads are wide, well marked and safe from pedestrians. Despite their critics, the roundabouts are in my opinion, much better than traffic lights. In what other town can you travel from one end to the other without encountering a traffic light? Footpaths are many feet from the roads in most cases. The network of paths around the town was very much unique to Northern Ireland in its day, keeping pedestrians away from the main roads. You could walk for miles without encountering that Skoda I was just talking about. The paths led to the Goodyear Factory, the shopping centre and the Balancing Lakes.

For parents to know their kids were safe was sheer bliss. In Belfast, if you didn’t live near a park the children were out on the street playing football, hide and seek etc. In Craigavon, the wide expanse of greenery was a sight for sore eyes. Play areas were set aside for children, they were as safe as the proverbial houses.

Schools didn’t have the endless line of cars at drop off and pick up times. Once again the path network did its job. And there were plenty of shools to cater for the population.

The Motorway and the roundabout system kept traffic away from the housing area. If you did drive to work locally, the journey was less than 5 minutes.

The shopping centre is also connected via the path network. Once a centre of just over a dozen or so shops, now it has been extended to cater for the bigger national stores alongside local businesses.

Is it just ‘change’ that people don’t like? Craigavon more than ever caters for house buyers. Successful business people live in some very fancy houses around the outskirts of the town, a town that people would probably describe as ‘quiet’.

Convinced! Just like that Skoda, you may need a test drive.

Craigavon was named after James Craig also known as Viscount Craigavon, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

The population at the 2001 census was over 50,000 with a percentage of approx 48% catholic and 52% protestant. Catholic and Protestant estates still existed but much of the area was mixed and people lived in harmony regardless of beliefs. In more recent years a multi-cultural community has grown, particularly with the Asian Community. Multi Cultural events have taken place to encourage integration with local people.

In the 1970s the government‘s drive was to encourage a move in population out of Belfast and down to Craigavon. Financial incentives were handed out until 1976. Goodyear were attracted to the area, opening a factory to make fanbelts. The network of paths took workers straight to the factory gates.

Unfortunately this lasted for only a short time and the Goodyear factory closed. Being the main employer for the area at the time it was a big blow and some people made their way back down the motorway to Belfast. Houses were left empty and there were no other people to put into them. Around the same time refugees from Vietnam known locally as the Vietnamese Boat people moved into the area taking up some of the housing that the local people didn’t want.

Some of the ill-fated estates were demolished. This was because of their hideous look. People were almost embarrassed to move into them and other houses were torn down because they were built with poor quality materials, so much so, that the big bad wolf could have threatened every single family, and won, without a fight.

Over the years new houses were built. It wasn’t social housing. It was private. Garymore development was the start of the housing boom. People bought semi-detached houses for around £7,000 as I recall. Every home was snapped up in hours. This led to other developers moving in to the area. It was a sign that people still wanted to live there, they could see the benefits.

Driving through Craigavon as I do several times a week, I see a change of the times. The 70’s style houses, around Drumgor, Clonmeen estates, ex-social housing most of them; the Garymore houses of the early 80’s; surrounded by the  up to date, all-mod-cons, brand spanking new private sector housing that is more common to the area now.

The Balancing Lakes have attracted a housing area all of its own overlooking the activities that go on there from time to time. The shopping centre beside the Lakes has increased in size attracting large national stores to the area which in effect has created more jobs for the people of Craigavon and the surrounding area. This is probably the most difficult place to get a parking space.

Socialising was all about local pubs, CB radios, cars with 65bhp, and go faster stripes, or calling in next door for a cuppa. I don’t know if there is much more than that now although I reckon the cars have changed somewhat. One thing I do know was that those relatives and friends preferred it that way. If they wanted to socialize, they went to Lurgan or Portadown or even the local pub that was sited well away from the houses.

Is regeneration needed in Craigavon? Well that’s what Minister Ritchie wants to find out.    

Minister for Social Development Margaret Ritchie MLA has shown that her priorities remain intact since the turn of the year.

The Minister’s commitment to investing in housing and addressing the housing crisis; building communities and encouraging social responsibility; and creating vibrant cities towns and urban areas has seen her visit a number of areas to check on progress and make announcements of further investment.

Recently she announced a new Framework for the Craigavon area. In her statement she stated:

"The Integrated Development Framework will help by identifying the full regeneration potential of the area as a whole and will provide a basis on which my department can use its regeneration powers, if necessary, to ensure realisation of this potential.”

In effect this means that professional people will take a look at the area and draw up a wish list of what can be done to improve Craigavon. The Department for Social Development will then examine the recommendations and advise Minister of their proposals and cost.

It doesn’t mean nightclubs, casinos, and pubs on every street corner. It means making better that which is already there and maybe making a few little tweaks to complement what is already working for the town’s people.

So maybe you’ve been convinced that Craigavon is worth considering as a future town to live in, or maybe not. Judging by other very successful regeneration projects, this new project could well have you saying  Craigavon is ’the place to be’. Will Craigavon’s new look be as successful as the Skoda, we will have to wait and see.