Area Profile
Setting
Ballymoney Borough covers 161 sq miles (41,700 hectares) and is predominantly rural in character. The town of Ballymoney is its administrative, commercial and educational centre, and there are a number of small villages in the rural hinterland. The Borough lies within the Antrim Coast and Glens Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and also the Lower Bann valley, which forms part of the Borough’s western boundary. These are areas of great natural beauty and wildlife interest and give numerous opportunities for outdoor recreation, including walking, cycling, water sports and coarse and game angling.
Location
The area is in a central location in the North East of Northern Ireland. Ballymoney benefits from lying on the main A26 linking the borough to the M2 and M1 motorways to the south and to the A2 in the northwest and is within 50 miles of three main airports and the seaports at Larne and Belfast. Ballymoney also lies on the Belfast-Londonderry railway line linking it to the main Belfast-Dublin economic corridor. Express bus and train services depart Ballymoney, on a regular basis daily, for Belfast.
Population
The area’s population has grown from 26,894 in 2001 to 29,741 in 2007 with one-third of the population of the borough living near or within the town of Ballymoney. The current population represents 1.7% of the population of Northern Ireland and since 2001 the borough has enjoyed a constant population growth rate of 1.7% per annum, (this rose to 1.8% 2006-2007), as a result of both positive natural change and a net inward migration to the borough.
The age composition of the population closely reflects the average for Northern Ireland as a whole, with the proportion of young people under 16 at 23.7% of the population and whilst small increases in the percentage of the population of working age in the borough have been recorded the percentage of pensioners living in the borough has remained relatively constant in recent years. Although the population of the borough is continually increasing the population density remains relatively low with 70 people per sq km.
The number of homes in the borough is currently 11,743 although Ballymoney has a total catchment of almost 75,500 homes within 30 minutes travelling distance from the town.
Employment and the Workforce
The area has an economically active workforce of approximately 69.3% of the working age population (c.f. 72% for NI), or around 11,088. The area is noted for its high proportion of self-employed and small businesses.
At 4.3% the unemployment claimant count is the 7th highest in Northern Ireland but still lower than the NI average of 6.1%. Much of this has been attributed to the decline in the manufacturing and construction sectors in recent times. Unemployment in the Borough reflects a high incidence of part time farming, rather than structural unemployment, with a low level of long-term unemployed although the borough has been designated as a Targeting Social Need (TSN) area.
Percentage of working population by industry of employment
Ballymoney compared with the Northern Ireland Average
Agriculture is very important to the Borough and Ballymoney Town is heavily dependent on its hinterland. There are 715 farms in the borough with an average size of 38.0 hectares, which, although they are similar in size to the NI average, record higher than average (NI) turnover per farm.
There are 1,305 VAT registered business located in the area of which approximately 41% are related to agriculture. The Borough has some well-established manufacturing businesses and employment levels in this sector at 13.8% are above the NI average: Its particular strength in the manufacturing sector lies in engineering. On the other hand the percentage of the working population employed in the service sectors in the borough at 73.5% is below the NI average of 80.8% and public sector employment at 4% is under half the NI average.
Business Support Network
Businesses in Ballymoney enjoy a ready access to business support catering for all stages of business development and needs. Ballymoney Borough Council facilitates a range of programmes, whilst Acorn and Invest NI also provide tailored support, with Invest NI focusing on the larger businesses with significant export potential whilst Acorn tailors its support to fledgling and existing smaller businesses.
Availability of Commercial accommodation and sites
Invest NI has 1.2 ha of land in Ballymoney available for leasing to investors, located just off Riada Avenue and adjacent to Acorn, the local enterprise agency.
The borough has three business parks with business incubator units, workspace and office space available for lease. Acorn, The Business Centre, has 53 rentable units totalling almost 4,200 square meters in two phases on its Riada Avenue site. Ballybrakes Industrial Park is a privately owned industrial park on the south-west edge of the town with almost 18,600 square metres of workspace and Frocess Industrial Park, on the main A26 just 2 miles south east of the town, has over 3,600 square metres.
Operating Costs
Although on the western periphery of the EU, Northern Ireland, as a region within a member state, enjoys tariff-free access to the largest single market in the world and the existing road, sea and air infrastructure makes that market readily accessible to Ballymoney-based businesses.
Labour costs in Northern Ireland are particularly attractive and this is certainly the case in Ballymoney where average weekly earnings are £334.70 compared with a N.I. average of £392.10. Male weekly earnings at £371 are 9th lowest in Northern Ireland whilst female earnings at £314.30 are the 6th highest.
On the commercial property front, prime retail sites are available in the town at £60 per square foot.
Investment
Direct inward investment in the area in recent years has been somewhat limited, however latest figures would indicate that Invest NI is currently working with 49 client companies employing 722 people. Substantial support is also available from Invest NI to companies wishing to locate in the area, although there are limited, immediately available, suitable premises for large-scale investors.
Supported by Invest NI (and in recent years Ballymoney Borough Council and the EU Building Sustainable Prosperity programme) the Start a Business programme has been extremely successful in Ballymoney outstripping all targets. In the most recent 12-month period 76 new micro or small businesses were supported in the area.
Also providing rural business development and diversification support in the area in recent years has been the Leader+ programme. Over the past 5 years over 30 businesses in the area have received in excess of £400,000 of Leader+ grants, a sum which has been matched by the businesses themselves bringing the total investment to over £800,000.
Education and Training
The borough has a wide range of excellent education and training facilities supplying a pool of available well-educated and competent young people.
There are twenty-three primary schools in the borough and three post-primary schools in Ballymoney Town. Dalriada School Ballymoney, the only grammar school in the borough, which has almost 850 pupils, regularly exceeds the high Northern Ireland standards at both GCSE and ‘A’ Level.
The Coleraine campus of the University of Ulster, one of the four campuses of a university with over 23,000 local, national and international students, is only eight miles away. The university is an internationally recognised centre of excellence in many areas offering a wide range of undergraduate, post-graduate and research courses of study with state-of-the-art facilities.
Located within the town boundary of Ballymoney is the Ballymoney campus of the newly formed Northern Regional College. The new college, encompassing the previous East Antrim Institute, North East Institute and Causeway Institute provides an enhanced learning experience for all students and wider access to progression routes. The College offers students courses of study in Foundation Degrees, ‘A’ level, BTEC, City & Guilds, GCSE, NVQ and other vocational and industrial qualifications.
Learndirect's flexible learning services are also available in the borough to individual adults wanting to improve existing skills or to learn new ones and to employers looking for an innovative way to develop the skills of their workforce.
Quality of Life
Ballymoney also offers its residents a wonderful quality of life with excellent services and facilities in close proximity to the Causeway Coast and the Glens of Antrim, both Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty; its residents enjoy an urban lifestyle in a rural setting.
The fertile fields of the Bann and Bush river valleys, on which the rural community is built, provide an excellent setting for many sporting and recreational activities and the borough’s 550 miles of roadway make their way through some spectacular scenery and past many places of historic interest.
Visitor attractions include the Leslie Hill Open Farm, Finvoy Fun Farm, Dirraw Farm Fly Fishing Lake and the Museum and Heritage centre, the latter two located in the recently refurbished and upgraded Town Hall.
The award winning Drumaheglis Marina and Caravan Park, located in a mature setting with its excellent facilities for caravaners, campers and water enthusiasts alike, attracts thousands of visitors each year and the British Caravanning Association has awarded the park its highest grading.
The Giant’s Causeway, the ‘eighth wonder of the world’, which is just 15 miles from Ballymoney town, attracts over 550,000 visitors each year and the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre, named after the world motorcycle champion, is the main leisure facility complete with a swimming pool, sports hall and state-of-the-art fitness suite and football stadium.
There is a ready availability of private housing, prices of which compare very favourably with homes in other areas of the province, with an average of over 300 new-builds per year.
Located only 6 miles to the north on the main Ballymoney to Coleraine Road is the ultra-modern Causeway Hospital with 240 beds offering a range of specialist in and day–patient services including maternity services as well as providing a full accident and emergency provision.