Twin Towns business start ups losing out for lack of ‘strategic plan’ 

A seasoned county councillor, Cllr Patrick McGowan from Fianna Fáil has claimed that the Twin Towns area has been consistently let down over the years regarding start up businesses, as there is not a “proper strategy there”.

He was commenting at the monthly meeting of the Lifford-Stranorlar MD, where he said that he had been communicating with senior staff officials, CEO, John G McLaughlin and Chief Executive and Director of Economic Development, Emergency Services and Information Systems, Garry Martin as the new Ballybofey-Stranorlar town area plan was now “live”.

He told the meeting that they were “now in the middle of the Ballybofey Stranorlar area plan working towards trying to get jobs creation and employment for some of the suitable land that are being sold”.

He said: “You could ask them to do it because we have a history of losing local start up businesses out to the rest of the county or across the border and even overseas out simply because they couldn’t get, in this case, suitable sites, never mind support.

“It is very much, and it is my point, that it has not been driven because we don’t have a proper strategy there. 

ABOVE: Cllr Patrick McGowan

He added: “Everything just seems to be that everything is going into Letterkenny or if it happens to be renewable energy or fisheries or offshore, it has to be Killybegs.

“I am just concerned that there is no strategy, no plan. It’s then very hard for the planners to know then because one of the sites that was earmarked in the past area plan, has actually been recommended to take out - that one is quite near the town - on the Donegal Road, just at the very edge of the speed limit, so I’m wondering what is the Economic Unit doing and obviously that has to be done in conjunction with the town plan and as I say that it is live at the moment 

“And rightly so, we are all very rightly concerned and looking at housing, but economic and job creation is a big issue and it is a big issue in the town as people want to start up business in the town and that can’t get sites.

“Like housing that hasn’t changed in 20 years, nobody talks about it at the moment but the price of the ESB has fallen, the prices of petrol has fallen, the price of Insurance has fallen, you can see it at the pumps but as Martin said (Cllr Harley) shops and retail units on the Main Streets here are very much struggling and people are going online and minimum wage is the big challenge now.”