Ratepayers asked to vote on Dundalk BIDS extension

A plebiscite to extend Dundalk BIDS (Business Improvement District Scheme) is currently underway with local ratepayers having until 17th August to submit their ballots and decide on whether to give the company another five-year term.

In 2009 Dundalk was the first town in Ireland to vote for such a scheme and over the past fifteen years it has worked to bring a range of initiatives to the town including, the Facades Operation Town transformation, SEEK Urban Arts Festival and the annual Frostival Carnival Of Light Parade.

The BIDs model has been so successful in Dundalk that both Newry and Drogheda have voted for its application in their districts in the recent years that have followed.

Since its inception, the scheme has overseen €3 million of investment in the town and since 2015 Dundalk has invested in projects with a commercial value of €1.5 million that enhance the visual perception of Dundalk.

Town Centre Commercial Manager with BIDS, Martin McElligott is hopeful ratepayers will continue to invest in the company’s efforts to make Dundalk the leading destination in the north east by voting Yes:

“Hopefully people will feel that we are doing our job. The town centre is a very important place and we’ve been very visual over the past six or seven years. I like to think that I’ve put the money where people can see it, through the changes being added and the results they have brought.”

Martin says one of the highlights of the last term has been the success of the SEEK Urban Arts Festival.

“The SEEK Festival was something that we started back in 2019 and it was one of the tools that we used to help refocus the perception of Dundalk. It’s five years on now, and the success of it is speaking for itself and is now internationally recognised and winning awards.”

“This project and the many projects that are closely linked are a concerted effort to rebrand Dundalk and demonstrates our commitment to improving the towns image and creating a more appealing environment for our visitors, investors and our residents.

“Rebranding and enhancing the image of our town has had a successful impact on the perception of our area.

“By collaborating with our various partners, we have leveraged their strengths and resources, which have elevated our destination proposition.”

Part of the plan for the next term, Martin says, is to extend their work further out to areas adjacent to the town centre.

“We started where we felt we needed to start. As you can see, Dundalk still has plenty of places that need to be addressed and the next five years will be spent trying to balance that visual perception across the town, not just in the core historic area.”

To date, the Facades project has transformed large parts of the town centre and has aided business owners with maintenance and upkeep of their buildings.

Martin revealed that some of his new plans will include putting more staff on the ground, which he hopes will get projects moving quicker and also hopes to bring forward some new initiatives over the next five years, which are already taking shape behind the scenes.

“We want to develop the SEEK Festival and we definitely want to accelerate the facades project.

“Elevating Dundalk’s national profile even further in the next term is my top priority, this is a constant pressure that I seem to thrive on! And I feel it’s our time and that it’s now or never for me.

“It’s all about keeping Dundalk’s image. When I took up office, there was a lot of dereliction and a lot of issues visually and that’s a hard place to sell sometimes even though we know that we have great business people and great independent strong businesses.”

One of the core pillars of the BIDS strategy has been to use art, culture and heritage as ways to regenerate the town centre and not just make it a better place to do business, but also to live, as Martin explains:

“Town Centres are no longer places that are measured by commercial activity alone, and that can sound like a contradiction to our existence, but to the contrary our core strategy is to protect the core retail and night time economy providers that we have here at the moment, and to do that we need to make Dundalk more liveable, more vibrant, a more attractive place to visit, work and live.

“This is equally important in attracting new business investment into the centre of our town.

“Projects like SEEK and Facades have been tools that have allowed us to do that and we’re never going to let go of that strategy.. It’s going to be a pillar in our program of work for the foreseeable future.

“It’s important to not distill it down to ‘what does it do for me’. It’s about what it can do for my area and that can then really benefit business and the overall quality of life within Dundalk.

“We’ve a lot of great people, a very strong Chamber of Commerce and a very strong local development office in the local LEO.

“But the town centre management agency’s sole charge at the moment is to work in partnership with Louth County Council on the visual perception and attraction of our town as a whole.

“That’s been my core focus as a manager and I’ve no intention of changing direction on that. In this term, I want to change gear and reach more people and have a much wider influence as we move outwards over the next five years. I am confident that Dundalk can stand firm and further enhance its new public image.

“The challenge over the next term will be to align everybody under this umbrella as rebranding an image that has been slowly eroded over the last number of decades takes time, forging strong partnerships will be crucial, tapping into the expertise, networks and resources of other organisations and individuals.

“These partnerships will bring fresh perspectives, innovative ideas and additional supports to help transcend Dundalk’s current destination proposition.

“Ultimately the success of this challenge will depend heavily on collective collaboration, strategic planning and most importantly consistent execution.

“I would like to thank my own staff, board of directors, councillors and the senior management team in Louth County Council for their incredible support over the last number of years.

“Partners like Creative Spark and Dundalk Tidy Towns that have really helped us on our journey, their efforts should never go unnoticed and are to be highly commended.”