SEVEN areas - Enniskillen, Strabane, Newry and Ballymena as well as Belfast's Lisburn Road, Cathedral Quarter and city centre - are to act as pilot Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) under a new government programme.
Each will receive extensive capacity-building support through a BID Academy to help them prepare to be a BID. Social development minister Nelson McCausland said: "Becoming a Business Improvement District enables local traders working alongside their local council to self-manage and self-fund improvement projects which will be of benefit to the area."