Northern Area Plan 2016
Coleraine Borough: Portrush Town Centre

The Plan seeks to promote a vibrant town centre, which will function more effectively as a focus for the local community, but also provide a positive experience for the many visitors both regional and from abroad. The town centre also has potential to further enhance its role of servicing North Coast tourism. The retail household survey of summer 2003, indicated that the town is performing poorly as a local retail centre, is heavily dependent on visitor spending and its vitality and viability is particularly vulnerable to external competition including further suburban retail development in Portrush.

A town centre boundary is defined in which all retail development will normally be required to locate (see Retail, Services and Offices Section, Policy RSO 1). This has been defined to exclude all significant housing groups, which are considered to have a viable future as a residential environment. Within this town centre boundary a considerable number of development opportunities are identified including gap sites, properties requiring redevelopment or major refurbishment to bring them back into beneficial use.