Younger Killyleagh

 

Is It Good Enough?

As a teenager, life can be tough, but faced with the exciting opportunities in Killyleagh it becomes even worse. Your friends come down to visit you, you want to make it as enjoyable for them as it was for you when you visited their hometown, but is there anything you can really do? Or it's your mum's birthday and you would like to go out for a nice meal with your family, is there anywhere really appropriate? You have an important last minute party to go to on Friday night, will it be a simple case of nipping down the street to get something to wear? These are typical scenarios for a young person of today, yet none of these problems can be answered with the facilities on offer in Killyleagh.

Fifty years ago Killyleagh was a quaint coastal town with a close and supportive community, but as the town is expanding outwards, the people too are drifting further apart. Due to lack of occupation availability here it has now transformed into a commuter town, yes everyone has their nice houses and perhaps go to the local shops for the essential bread and milk, but how many people truthfully feel like an active community. I believe this is because, in some ways, Killyleagh is still holding the attitude it had fifty years ago. Now I'm not trying to dismiss everyone, because there are vital members of our society trying to make a difference, but action needs to be taken to improve the state of our town. Even as your drive through, the majority of places look boring and dreary. New families have moved into the town, so now is the time to provide something for the forthcoming generation of children and attract others to what could be a beautiful and prosperous town.

The older age group in the town are the first to complain when they see drunken youths hanging around street corners, but to the young people, being stuck here on a Saturday night leaves them little else to do. To do anything remotely interesting means travelling out of town, whether it means to Downpatrick, Newcastle or Belfast, most places appear more interesting than here. Though I appreciate we can't start building nightclubs or theme parks in the middle of Irish Street, something else must be done. We have great surrounding sites such as the old High School yet nothing is made of them. Obviously expenses must be considered, and the population here isn't that big, but if sufficient effort were made to establish something really great for children, we would draw other people into the town.

The Bridge Centre has somewhat improved life for children, but only up to the age of about ten. We need a leisure complex with proper fitness suites and programmes available for everyone; salsa, aerobics, Tae Bo, modern dance, there are unlimited possibilities. The Bridge Centre has a very limited range of exercise machines, and with our health becoming more important everyday, we should be adding to this. What about a swimming pool, it would provide entertainment, exercise and a good reason for people to come into Killyleagh, in turn this would benefit the already existing small businesses because people would call into many establishments while passing through. Surely everyone has noticed the increasing number of skaters looking for somewhere to practice their jumps and flips, a skate park would be inexpensive yet would attract others. There are a large number of very talented musicians in Killyleagh, yet at the moment they are all stuck in their bedrooms, there's nowhere for them to practice and collaborate. Even for the primary school children, why not have preteen discos, activity days or video nights?

I realise the difficulty in finding a solution to this problem but action must be taken now. Killyleagh has lay dormant for far too long now, we need to make investments and improvements to make out town enjoyable and exciting for young people.

 

Anon, Teenager in Killyleagh