Character of town is crucial warns Holywood Chamber

Holywood Chamber of Trade and Commerce has warned that the unique character of Holywood must be maintained as a means of supporting its future tourism economy.

S Gordon Duffield, president of the Holywood Chamber of Trade and Commerce, has backed a call by local residents to have part of the town designated a conservation area as evidence of "enlightened self interest".

Mr Duffield said: "What they are doing is not only preserving the built heritage for the benefit of those who currently live there but ensuring that key assets are protected to contribute to the area's future prosperity. You wipe out history at your peril."

The high level of local concern at the future shape of Holywood within the coming Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan has led an unprecedented interest in the quality of its environment and the its historic identity.

"The two main areas of future economic development for Holywood are firmly pinned to tourism and information technology. Both can contribute to the betterment of lifestyle and employment prospects - providing that the growth and direction of each is controlled.

"Our tourism aim should be to bring into the area those that we would readily welcome to our homes and who will share our interests as well as contribute to the quality of our lives. Information technology, particularly in its creative aspects, is a 'clean' industry whose expansion can only bring work enhancement to a new generation who will take Holywood forward. The combination of both is capable of sustaining a quality infrastructure the like of which has not been seen before in Holywood."

But he cautioned against the kind of tourism that would - in the worst scenario – "pollute Holywood with trippers, lager louts and drug-pushers and IT developments that would offer only short term or non-sustainable employment".

He said: "The Chamber shares a common bond with those who want to protect the built heritage of the town and its unique wooded environment - that of wanting progress, but not at any price."

Mr Duffield pointed out that there was evidence of where history had taken a wrong turn in parts of the South where the 'Celtic Tiger' had turned parts of the country into "tomorrow's wasteland".

(SP)