By Michelle Weir and Local Democracy Reporter,Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter

Copyright northernirelandworld

The proposed location is the former Poundland premises at Murrayfield Shopping Centre in Point Street. Poundland moved out of Murrayfield arcade in 2021 before moving to a new unit at Laharna Retail Park in November of that year which had been left vacant by fashion retailer New Look. The planning application for proposed change of use from a vacant retail unit has been made by an agent on behalf of Alan Humphries of Larne Bingo Ltd. A copy of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s ‘Town Centre Health Check’ report 2024 was uploaded to the Northern Ireland planning portal with the application. It reports the findings of land use surveys which were carried out in March of last year. The report shows ground, first and second floor uses for units in Larne town centre at the time. Of these, 60 were retail services; 45 were leisure services; 21 were finance and business; 12 were convenience; 72 were vacant and others had more general use. There were 277 in total. By comparison, there were 290 units in 2018, of which 62 were vacant. Leisure services include cafes, restaurants, pubs and wine bars as well as betting offices and bingo, amusements and others. The report stated: “Larne has a strong offer of retail services (21.66 per cent), well above the Northern Ireland average of 13.86 per cent while financial and business services (7.58 per cent) are slightly below the NI average. Larne has a lower proportion of leisure services within the town centre (16.25 per cent compared with the NI average of 19.81 per cent. “At the time of the MEA council survey, Larne had 72 vacant units resulting in a proportion of almost 26 per cent. This is higher than Carrickfergus and Ballymena’s vacancy and well above the Northern Ireland average (20.12 per cent).” Meanwhile, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council is exploring a new grant scheme aimed at revitalising town centres and villages. In June, the local authority appealed directly to owners of vacant or derelict properties in the borough to come forward to “help shape a potential new grant scheme that will support property improvements whilst tackling dereliction and vacancy”.