CITY STATUS BID BACK ON TRACK

BALLYMENA Borough Council is to make a fresh bid for the right to become a city.

Members agreed a suggestion from their chief executive, Mrs Anne Donaghy, at last Monday night’s monthly meeting that a working group be formed to progress the matter.

Pointing out that the process was being handled on the mainland by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, she said that more concrete details including the application process would be made available later in the year,

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In the meantime, she urged that preparations get underway for the creation of ‘a robust and detailed’ submission.

Serious bid

“I am aware of a number of towns across the UK who have done work in preparation for a bid for city status,” she told the meeting.

And she asked councillors to consider forming a cross-party working group to be led by the Mayor, in conjunction with public and statutory bodies, political representatives and others, which would assist in the preparation of a draft costed programme for Ballymena’s city status bid.

Councillor and North Antrim MLA, Declan O’Loan commented: “We should take this bid very seriously indeed and put considerable energy and resources behind it.

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“This town is very well positioned to make a serious application and it is important that we do it right. The quicker we get in with it the better”.

Supporting his remarks, Cllr Monica Digney added: “We have shown that we are fit for purpose - the sooner we get a working group up and running the better”.

Cllrs Beth Adger and James Currie suggested that work carried out on previous similar bids could be updated to save some time and money on the latest city pitch.