Twin Towns councillors hit back at ‘totally wrong’ newspaper report - Donegal Daily

Councillors from the Twin Towns have hit back following last month’s national newspaper report which depicted Ballybofey and Stranorlar in a poor light.They wer...

Councillors from the Twin Towns have hit back following last month’s national newspaper report which depicted Ballybofey and Stranorlar in a poor light.

They were irked when The Irish Times published a ‘one sided’ article which zoomed in on the fact the towns have 33.6% of commercial properties vacant - more than twice the national rate.

At yesterday’s meeting of the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District (MD), local elected representatives took aim at the ‘paper of record.’

“We got bad publicity from an article in The Irish Times which was totally wrong,” Cllr Martin Harley said.

Also a local publican, he added: “We have it all in Drumboe Woods and an upcoming multi-million euro town regeneration, but The Irish Times just focused on one issue. We will be inundated with tourists when this regeneration and other developments are completed.”

Sinn Fein councillor, Gary Doherty, also accentuated the positives about the two towns, but pointed out that ‘there are reasons’ for the negative headlines.

“ The Irish Times report gave a very bad impression of the Twin Towns. But they are thriving, vibrant towns. We all know that Ballybofey and Stranorlar are great towns, but there are reasons these negative headlines keep coming up.”

He pointed to a recent survey by The Base enterprise centre and the newly established 'Town Team' which listed a total of 96 vacant commercial and resident properties in Ballybofey and Stranorlar.

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The Raphoe-based Cllr Frank McBrearty said he didn’t want to comment on the article as he felt it ‘isn’t worth commenting on’.

But, he did comment: “ The Irish Times did not highlight what the Twin Towns has to offer. I don’t live in the Twin Towns, but it has so much to offer and it's very unfair of The Irish Times not to contact any of the elected members. "We have an issue with derelict buildings, but the council is working on that. I can’t say publicly what I want to say about The Irish Times and the person who wrote the article. But, it’s a pity all the good stuff wasn’t highlighted.”

However, Cllr Patrick McGowan told the meeting he was contacted by the journalist in question.

“That journalist contacted me a couple of days before the article was published, but I asked her to meet with the Chamber and The Base,” he explained.

“The article was formed by what was said by people on the street and there were some mistakes in the report. But, the Twin Towns is still the second highest in the country for empty commercial buildings. We also have Aldi, Lidl and Supervalu that replaced many of the businesses that were in the now vacant properties. It was great to see people in the Balor Theatre, and others, coming out to defend their towns. Maybe some good will come out of all this.”

Cllr McGowan, the Cathaoirleach of the MD, also praised the positive follow-up by Donegal Daily to The Irish Times article.