Updated Designs: Shaped by Your Feedback

Community feedback has played an important role in shaping the design proposals. Six public consultation events have been held throughout the design process, and engagement has extended beyond these events. A dedicated consultation workshop with students from Carrickfergus Academy, facilitated in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), gave young people a direct voice in the process, and their feedback has been captured in the latest design proposals.

Following the most recent public consultation on 23 April 2026, the designs have been updated, and the feedback received has directly shaped the proposals now submitted for planning. Below are the key areas where your views have made a difference.

You said, we listened

The High Street

You said: “Make the High Street more welcoming — but keep it open to traffic.”

What’s changed: The design creates more space for people while traffic access is retained. Greenery is delivered through surface-mounted planters rather than deep tree pits, an approach that protects the archaeology beneath the town and respects the High Street’s historic character as an open market space. New interpretation, materials and street furniture are all informed by the town’s medieval heritage.

Parking and Events

You said: “Don’t lose the parking and event space at the castle, it’s where our fairs, concerts and community gatherings happen.”

What’s changed: Following the public consultation, a decision was taken to increase the capacity of the Marine car park beyond that shown in the design proposals presented during the consultation. The proposed park around it has been reduced in size accordingly, retaining a significant number of parking spaces, a smaller reduction than originally proposed and preserving flexibility for the continued use of the space for events and gatherings. The reconfigured Castle Parade Square adds a flexible event space, with the power, drainage and access infrastructure needed to host markets, festivals and cultural events all year round.

The Bridge Concept

You said: “The pedestrian bridge doesn’t belong here and would spoil views of the castle.”

What’s changed: We agree it wasn’t right for Carrickfergus. The bridge has been removed from the proposals.

Town Art

You said: “We want public art that tells the town’s stories, and we love the murals we already have.”

What’s changed: The art strategy is rooted in the town’s own story. In the Waterfront Park, sculptural translucent cubes recall the site’s history as a salt store and Carrickfergus’s salt industry; still exporting over 500,000 tonnes a year, glowing gently at night and offering a canvas for artists’ projections, with paving patterns inspired by the salt seams beneath the town. Along the heritage walk, interpretive totems and sculptural interventions bring the story of the Town Walls; the oldest stone fortifications in Ulster to life, and there remain opportunities for the community to get involved in shaping public art.

The Underpass

You said: “The underpass feels neglected and uninviting.”

What’s changed: The underpass will be improved with planting, street art and new lighting, connecting it into the heritage walk so it becomes part of the town’s story rather than a space to hurry through.

The Visitor Centre

You said: “The project needs to do more for local shops and businesses — the benefits of tourism should reach the whole town.”

What’s changed: The Visitor Centre has been relocated from the castle car park into the town, helping bring visitors into the heart of Carrickfergus. This is backed by a town-wide wayfinding strategy, new signposting, interpretive features and orientation points. Designed to encourage movement between the castle, waterfront, transport hubs and town centre, increase footfall past local businesses and extend the time visitors spend in the town.

A Safer, Better-Lit Town

You said: “Parts of the town feel dark and unwelcoming after the shops close.”

What’s changed: A coordinated town-wide lighting strategy will create a safe, comfortable, pedestrian-focused environment after dark. The historic town walls will be gently washed with light, with a continuous line of in-ground lighting tracing the route of the former wall line. Street lighting will be upgraded and decluttered. The strategy is scaled to the town’s historic character, designed to control light spill for nearby residents, and, following feedback developed sensitively to minimise any impact on local wildlife.

The Marine Highway

You said: “Reducing the Marine Highway to two lanes would cause congestion.”

What’s changed: This proposal has been dropped. There will be no reduction to the Marine Highway.

Listening to young people

Working with Queen’s University Belfast, we held consultation workshops with 15–16 year old students from Carrickfergus Academy. Their honest, thoughtful feedback has directly informed the planning application. Here’s what they told us and how the design responds:

• There’s nowhere for us. Parks are designed for young children and shops for adults, leaving teenagers with no space of their own, so many travel to Belfast to socialise. In response, the new Waterfront Park includes a dedicated play space for teenagers, with its design to be developed through further consultation and collaboration with Queen’s University so young people help shape their own space. The park’s urban beach creates a place to play for all ages, a destination unique to the region.

• Feeling safe after dark. Poorly lit streets, vacant buildings and isolated underpasses are actively avoided, a concern raised particularly strongly by female students. The proposals respond with upgraded lighting, improved wayfinding and the activation of currently underused buildings and spaces, increasing activity, footfall and natural surveillance through the day and evening.

• Feeling judged. Young people told us they often feel unwelcome in the town centre, and that simply gathering with friends can be misread as anti-social behaviour. The design responds with a range of free, publicly accessible spaces, pocket parks with integrated seating, visitor facilities and community-focused spaces within the Civic Centre and Town Hall designed to welcome all ages without any expectation to spend money.
• A more vibrant town. Students want a town centre that gives them a reason to stay local rather than travel elsewhere. Increasing town centre activity through improved cultural, tourism, educational and community facilities is a core objective of the regeneration programme.

Some of this feedback echoed changes already made, better lighting across the town centre and the transformation of the underpass. The rest we’ve woven into the designs now submitted for planning: public spaces that genuinely welcome every age and every gender, with places to sit, shelter from the weather and safe, well-connected routes between them. Young people were never an afterthought in this project. They are the generation who will inherit it.

This is your town, and your story. Thank you for helping to shape it.