Business Centre plans impress Civic leaders

Who has attracted £5m investment into the borough to support enterprise and economic development, and, makes £50,000 of voluntary contribution back to the business community each year?

These were just some of the intriguing questions easily answered by Ballymena Business Centre representatives when they met with borough councillors last Monday night to unveil their Draft Strategic Plan for 2012-2015.

Elected representatives attending the Development and Leisure Services committee meeting were roundly supportive of all that the Centre has achieved since its establishment in 1989 and of its plans for the future.

They were the latest of more than 80 ‘stakeholder’ audiences to which the Centre has consulted on its latest three-year strategy.

Councillors were informed that Ballymena Business Centre manages a portfolio of over 100 business units in Ballymena and supports business tenants that collectively have a business turnover of £8m.

And they were also impressed on being told that the Centre has an infrastructure base that supports 238 employees who collectively contribute £3m to the local economy and half a million to the national economy each year.

The Centre was established in 1989 as a social enterprise to provide vital support for those thinking of starting a business and for those seeking to develop an existing business.

Today their focus remains firmly fixed on promoting an enterprise culture, nurturing new business start ups and providing a range of business solutions to help those successfully grow an existing business.

Councillors heard that the draft Strategy for 2012-2015 focuses on three Enterprising Themes - Enterprising People, Enterprising Business and Enterprising Community - and that its aim is to add value at a regional level to the NI Programme for Government Economic Strategy and at a local level to the Ballymena Borough Council’s Community Planning Strategy.

Speaking to The Ballymena Times at last week’s meeting with councillors, Chief Executive of the Centre, Melanie Christie Boyle, said: “We want to make sure that what we do makes a difference at a local, grass roots level and this is being done at minimal, if virtually any, cost to the public purse”.

Melanie said that the consultation on the draft plan was considerable, taking in representatives of regional and local government, the social enterprise sector, banking industry etc., and that Ballymena Business Centre was encouraging their feedback.