Traders in Sandy Row are celebrating the completion of the first phase of a regeneration programme which has helped to improve the appearance of the locality – and to attract more shoppers into it.

A number of local shop fronts have been given much needed `makeovers` as part of Belfast City Council's 'Renewing The Routes' programme, which is seeing £150,000 invested in environmental and infrastructure improvements on the famous inner city thoroughfare.

Similar schemes are being carried out on the Antrim Road and Grosvenor Road and in the Castlereagh Street area, while the council has recently given approval for a wider £1.2 million programme of work across the city over the next three years.

With many of the shops in the Sandy Row scheme family-run independent traders, the improvements are work which the business owners themselves could not have carried out without the support of the council.

-- Advertisement --

Alderman Christopher Stalford, Chairman of the council's Development Committee, and who also represents the Sandy Row area, said: "This is an excellent example of what happens when the authorities and communities work together, and represents, in a microcosm, the investment package which we launched earlier this year in action, at a local level and making a positive impact at local level.

"As with other schemes in the 'Renewing The Routes' programme, this scheme has breathed new life into a key arterial route and helped the traders, and the local community, look toward a brighter future."

Over the past ten years, more than £60 million has been invested in the enhancement of Belfast`s arterial routes as a result of an innovative inter-agency approach to enhance the vitality of the main routes into the city by developing and implementing integrated regeneration plans for designated areas. These projects have included the construction of the new Falls Leisure Centre and Grove Wellbeing Centre, as well as £6 million directly invested by Belfast City Council in the 'Renewing the Routes' programme.

The next phase of the scheme, which will take the programme through to 2016, was approved by the council last month and will incorporate projects on the upper Andersonstown Road, Castlereagh Road, lower Lisburn Road, lower Newtownards Road, Oldpark Road, upper Ormeau Road, lower Shankill Road and York Road.

(CD/GK)