Purple Flag Places -
BANGOR

Bangor (from Irish: Beannchor) is a large town in County Down, Northern Ireland with a population of around 77,000. It is a seaside resort on the southern side of Belfast Lough and within the Belfast Metropolitan Area. Bangor Marina is the largest in Ireland, and holds Blue Flag status. In 2007, and again in 2008, the town was voted by Ulster Television viewers as the most desirable place to live in Northern Ireland.

The town is primarily residential and can be viewed as a commuter town for the Greater Belfast area, from which it is linked by the A2 road and a direct railway line. Both routes are amongst the busiest throughout the region. Bangor is situated 13.6 miles (22 km) east from the heart of Belfast and thirty minutes by train or bus with George Best Belfast City Airport even closer.

Bangor has a long and varied history, from the Bronze Age people whose swords were discovered in 1949 or the Viking burial found on Ballyholme beach, to the Victorian pleasure seekers who travelled on the new railway from the industrial smog of Belfast to take in the fresh sea air. The town has been the site of a monastery renowned throughout Europe for its learning and scholarship, the victim of violent Viking raids inthe 8th and 9th centuries, and the new home of Scottish and English planters during the Plantation of Ulster.

The town has prospered as an important port, a centre of cotton production, and a Victorian and Edwardian holiday resort. The area was also known as The Vale of Angels, as Saint Patrick once rested there and is said to have had a vision filled with angels.

Today it is a large retail centre and a commuter town for Belfast, though the remnants of the town's varied past still shape its modern form. Tourism is important, particularly in the summer months, and plans are being made for the regeneration of the seafront. This will build upon one of its strengths - a vibrant, varied evening economy

The Assessors and Panel were taken by a number of actions, and Bangor specific projects. In particular:

• The partnership in Bangor has achieved significant success in the development of a positive night time economy with very few legislative enforcement tools.
• There are many initiatives that work very well (Street Safe, Safe-Zone, BAND etc.) and the proactive nature of the management should be commended; and
• The main success in Bangor has been the reversal of negative perceptions around safety through positive engagement with licensees, rather than enforcement.
• The development of a high-quality restaurant sector isproving very successful, and should continue to be a focus.

Centre Contact
Stephen Dunlop
Town Centre Manager
North Down Borough Council
E: tcmbangor@btconnect.com

Information Files:

Bangor Case Study
Filesize: 278 Kb