The report by community-based retailer SPAR UK drilled down to find the key elements that make a great neighbourhood according to participants, who revealed that feeling a sense of belonging (26%), having good neighbours (25%) and access to free green spaces (12%) are what makes a great community.

Derry came out on top of the NI communities, while West Belfast polled second, East Belfast third, Newtownards fourth and Ballymena fifth. In the list which spanned the whole of the UK, Derry placed seventh in the Top 10.

The report went on to show that a huge 64% of people would describe themselves as happy living in their community, with 53% of those from Northern Ireland adding that their community gave them a sense of belonging – the highest in the UK.

Nurturing a neighbourhood and making a positive difference was something that a huge 67% said was important to them, going on to say it was good to make others feel like they matter.

An impressive 30% also said they were involved in activities for local causes with coffee mornings coming out as the top activity with 70% of people saying they attend, followed by charity jumble sales (40%) and community fun runs or walks (30%). When asked about improving the community environment, a huge 65% said they are involved in community gardening, one of the highest in the country, and over half (52%) also help to renovate and improve local facilities.

And it seems the joy of being involved in our neighbourhoods has grown in 2022, as the research found that 40% of people in Northern Ireland have helped each other a lot more in recent months, the highest in the UK. Over half (58%) also added that they felt they had got to know people in their neighbourhood more, including people working in local shops.

SPAR, which has over 2,600 stores across the UK, of which over 300 are in the heart of communities in Northern Ireland, commissioned the poll of 3,000 UK adults and revealed the most community driven locations from across the UK.

When it comes to community activities, jumble and boot sales came out top as the most popular across Northern Ireland (27%), but the community get together loved the most is a local pub quiz, with 63% saying they attend.

Sports is also a key community event for those in Northern Ireland, with 63% taking part in walking, 40% running and 25% joining fitness classes run by the community. A quarter (24%) also attend dancing classes, one of the highest in the country.

John Drury, a social psychologist specialising in the study of collective behaviour at the University of Sussex commented: “These important findings underline the role that local community plays in people’s lives and find a strong association between the number of groups that people were involved in and their increased happiness in living more locally.

“It’s no coincidence that the activities that were found to drive happiness most – local get- togethers, pub quizzes and dog walking – are all activities that allow people to extend their social circle and form new friendships. It’s also worth noting that some of the most popular activities locally – litter picking and community gardening – serve to improve the community environment. They produce a virtuous circle of happiness in the local community.

“It’s clear that people have discovered, or rediscovered, their local community through the pandemic. Like others, I got to know people in my local shops and cafes through working from home, and realised what a great community I live in.”

Suzanne Dover, Brand & Marketing Director at SPAR UK added: “Our SPAR stores around the UK believe in nurturing their neighbourhoods and supporting the communities they serve. It’s amazing to see such a great response which tells us that people are reconnecting with those in their local communities and enjoying making the most of living in their neighbourhoods.”

SPAR’s recent Community Cashback Scheme gave local shoppers the opportunity to apply for grants to help fund programmes, social clubs and charities in Northern Ireland that give back and bring us together.

£20,000 has recently been awarded to successful NI organisations including The Community Rescue Service, North Coast World Earth, Tackling Awareness of Mental Health Issues, The Hygiene Bank NI, Listening Ear and D’Sign Arts.

More on SPAR NI’s Community Cashback Grant can be found via spar-ni.co.uk/community-cashback-grant, and to find out more about SPAR NI’s community engagement, visit https://www.spar-ni.co.uk/spar-community.

Caption: The Community Rescue Service’s (CRS) Search Technician Murrough McDonagh and District Commander Barry Torrens with SPAR Milltown Rd Store Manager David Buckley, plus CRS’s Regional Commander Sean McCarry and Assistant Unit Commander Ruari Bailey.

The post Derry named best for community spirit in Northern Ireland: SPAR survey first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

Paul Hughes says one of his earliest memories was running in and out of the pharmacy founded by his mother next door to the family home on Enniskillen’s Belmore Street.

“My mother, Laura Joan Hughes, started this pharmacy in 1955 and she worked in it until she was 80 years of age,” he says.

“My earliest memory was that even as a child I was in and out all the time. I was brought up in a pharmacy background and that’s where I developed an interest in it.”

Over the years, Paul became involved in the family business and began working alongside his mother in both the Enniskillen pharmacy and another in Newtownbutler.

Hughes Pharmacy is now a fully rounded healthcare provider, delivering a host of services to the community, and has even won NI Pharmacy of the Year at the Pharmacy in Focus awards in 2017 for its outstanding service to the community, as well as being nominated for three more awards.

“We went from being what you would call a typical pharmacy where you dispense prescriptions and we’re now doing vaccinations, repeat prescriptions, prescription collection and delivery, minor ailments service, blood pressure and blood sugar testing, healthy living advice, oxygen delivery service and smoking cessation service,” Paul says.

Migrating

Many of these services were originally handled by community doctors and nurses but are now migrating to the community pharmacy.

“Fifty years ago we would have been doing prescriptions and cough medicines, now the range of extent of the pharmacy services have vastly increased over the years,” he says.

The recent upheaval of the pandemic brought its own challenges and Paul says the outbreak really pushed pharmacies to the fore.

“All of a sudden we got this situation where people didn’t want to come out of their houses unnecessarily and it became hard to access GP services,” he says.

“Pharmacies generally rose to the challenge and became the first line of healthcare – it was an open door and you didn’t need an appointment and could access services quite easily.”

Long hours

His own staff worked extra hours and hugely ramped up the delivery service.

“They didn’t take holidays or time off because of the demand and I think they deserve to be recognised,” Paul says.

“We were often working to 10 o’clock at night delivering medication – during the pandemic the delivery service became a very big service.

“ We could have been doing 40 or 50 deliveries a day and the vaccination service followed on from that. We’ve done hundreds of Covid vaccinations and now we’re doing flu vaccines.”

Paul says ideally community pharmacies are well placed to deliver further minor ailments services that are currently delivered by GP surgeries.

“People can now come to the pharmacy for minor ailments such as diarrhoea, athlete’s foot, head lice – we can write prescriptions for those,” he says.

“But I do think the minor ailments formula should be increased – we’re now looking at increasing it and maybe bringing in things like UTIs.”

For the full feature, click HERE.

The post How Hughes Pharmacy became the community frontline during Covid-19 first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

With a £3 million investment in a superb EUROSPAR, a range of new services and convenience retailing has been brought right in to the heart of a local community.

Officially opened by Henderson Retail in early September, this £3m state-of-the-art EUROSPAR community supermarket on Moss Road Millisle, brings 25 new jobs to the local area.

The build, which began pre-lockdown and lasted eight months, replaces the original SPAR store on Main Street, retaining its 15 employees.

NR spoke to Henderson Retail’s regional manager John Clarke about the new store – what was involved from start to finish?

Seaside town

“Millisle is a small seaside town so this is important for the local economy. It has been so well received by customers, especially in these challenging times . Shoppers used to have to travel to Ards, Donaghadee, or Bangor – now they have this great new facility on their door step.”

There was a local SPAR on the Main Street which continued trading right up until 8pm the night before the new EUROSPAR opened. “Shoppers still want to be able to get their essentials locally,” explained John.

Then on the Friday morning in early September the doors were officially opened – with a guest of honour from the local community – Linda Patterson the retired  principal of Millisle primary school who had been head mistress for 35 years and basically knows everyone in the community.

Community engagement

“It’s not just about design and creating a special store – it’s important to involve the whole community from the beginning. How we successfully deliver a great Community store is through our Project manager, Gregory Cochrane who will begin to build relationships within the community six to eight months before the store opens. During this time Gregory will begin to identify key community partners such as schools, community groups, churches and local clubs with whom we can work alongside, support and by working together make a difference in their local community. Another key element of Gregory’s role is to work along with the store manager and existing staff to build the team structure for the new store. This is essential to deliver a successful project through its people and build ownership and accountability across each department within the store. With over thirty years of retail experience Gregory is uniquely qualified to deliver this role.

“This has turned out to be an invaluable role and has made a real difference to opening a new store for Henderson Retail. The new EUROSPAR has been so well received by the community,” said John

“It’s important the community is completely on board with everything that is happening. We see this as a key component to deliver a store that sits at the Heart of the Community.

Special store

The £3m investment in the EUROSPAR in Millisle was a huge project involving a number of departments within our team. The process starts long before work begins on site. This involved elements from our property team, acquisitions, operations and the technical side. Quite often that process starts 18 to 24 months beforehand.

“My role as regional manager is to check in and make sure everything is as it should be and all the key elements of the project are being delivered. The fixtures and fittings are important but the most important part is recruiting the right people so that from day one they know what they’re doing and they feel part of a great team. The existing 15 staff from the original SPAR on Main Street were retained and new staff brought in. They spent eight weeks training on customer experience, our tills, systems and how we do things. Everything is customer focused and designed to enhance the shopper experience.”

What’s new in-store?

“The newness of the store – with its extended fresh range and family favourites is evident, but there’s also a brand-new butchery instore. Wrights of Donaghadee is a family owned butcher with 96 years’ experience and is very much steeped in the local community. People are delighted that they’ve opened a butchery counter in-store – this is the first time Wrights have opened a concession shop and it has been very warmly received by shoppers,” said John.

The new EUROSPAR also features the latest Barista Bar coffee machines, which can now offer deluxe size cups and favourites such as the Flat White.

“The latest version of our very successful Barista brand machines and is also much faster reducing the time from bean to. We know that saving time is important to our shoppers.

We have introduced three self-checkouts to improve speed of service but we also have manned tills for those who want to be served and  engage with our team.

We’ve doubled the bread and cake space and there’s a lovely new Occasions area with Hallmark Cards, wrapping paper and everything you need for gifting”

They have introduced a new milk shake range which has proved to be very popular, as has the new deli counter – Daily Deli providing breakfast, lunch and tea time solutions.

New forecourt

The fuel forecourt is a welcome addition to the area.“This is the first petrol station in Millisle for 15 years,” explained John. “This is so important to the local community and economy. There’s also 39 parking spaces.”

With a total of 40 staff now – 15 original staff and 25 new staff working a mix of full time and part time, the EUROSPAR is an important local employer. It’s also a seaside town so there is a seasonal aspect to be factored in. “It’s been open for over a month now. The feedback has been amazing. For example, on the till receipts there is an option for customers to ‘Tell Us First’ – for customer feedback.

“We are amazed that we’ve had 85 responses in the first month – 85 people took the trouble and time to go online to give us their feedback and it’s all been positive.

Resounding Success

As regional manager, John Clarke oversees a total of 96 stores, with eight area managers looking after their respective areas. “I’m the link between the running of the stores and the directors” he explained.

In a small village like Millisle, this is a huge investment. It’s over 5,000 square feet and has been designed for the future.

“This EUROSPAR brings a butchery, deli, forecourt and a whole range of facilities on site. Our Tesco Price Match on over 1,000 lines means that we can offer customers great value at a more convenient location.”

Constantly developing

Henderson Retail is constantly developing new and upgrading existing stores. As John Clarke spoke to NR, the company had just finished internal improvements at the SPAR BP forecourt on Malone Road in Belfast.

EUROSPAR Millisle is the second new store operated by Henderson Retail to open in the past couple of months after SPAR Carnmoney Hill.

The company will also open a new, state-of-the-art VIVOXTRA in Banbridge in November. The local supermarket will open on Newry Road, employing 40 staff and providing an array of local services from Windsor Bakery to Quail’s Butchery counter, with a high level of investment in the build for the local community.

“We’ll continue to invest in our local communities to bring great value shopping, top-quality services and amenities in a safe environment for our customers” said John. 

Lead Picture Caption: David Miskimmin (second left), EUROSPAR Millisle Area Manager and Gregory Cochrane Henderson Retail Store Project Manager (centre) are pictured with EUROSPAR Millisle store manager, Joanne Knox (second right) and store staff at the official opening of the £3m community supermarket.

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