FERMANAGH District Council has been asked to justify its decision to use thousands of pounds worth of public funds to create a controversial website to promote Enniskillen.

The Council, with the support of a Steering Committee comprising of members of Enniskillen Business Partnership (EBP), received £250,000 from the Department of Social Development (DSD) for the revitalisation of Enniskillen Town Centre.

£13,000 of this was spent on the creation and development of enjoy-enniskillen.com, a website which the Council contends is merely a “snapshot of the town, giving a flavour of all that is on offer in Enniskillen”.

The Impartial Reporter has learned however, that a petition, circulated around the town at the end of last year, garnered the support of over 100 businesses, all calling for the website to be removed.

The petition argued that the website was in direct competition with the already established and privately funded enterprise, visitenniskillen.com.

The Council have ignored this call to date.

The issue was taken right to Stormont in September last year when Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA, Tom Elliott asked Minister for Social Development, Nelson McCausland, whether departmental funding could be used to establish a commercial business which would compete with private enterprise providing the same of similar service.

The DSD funding in its entirety was used to cover various improvement measures for the town centre including shop front dressing, shutter imagine, additional Christmas lights and a projector, entertainment, events and a branding, marketing and advertising campaign.

The development of enjoy-enniskillen.com fell under the funding for branding and marketing the town.

The Council tendered for a delivery agent for the campaign in 2013. The tender was advertised in three newspapers including the two local papers.

It was won by Belfast firm, McCadden.

The initial plan for branding and marketing did not actually include the creation of a website.

It had originally been proposed that money be put towards “lamp post banners, maps for the town centre and ‘pop-up maps’”.

But when, after discussions with Transport NI, it was established that permission would not be granted for lamppost banners of an adequate size to effectively market Enniskillen, focus shifted towards the development of a website.

Although it had been a secondary thought for the Council and the Steering Committee, McCadden’s project overview states: “With the design and production of a new Enniskillen place brand it has been agreed that this new brand must have it’s own website - a digital platform that will enable the brand to communicate with all relevant audiences on an ongoing basis”.

It went live in April last year, despite concerns being raised repeatedly by one business owner in particular in the town.

It initially included Enniskillen business listing details and links to each respective business’ website.

When concerns were raised that this was a replication of existing websites, this service was removed from the website.

The Enniskillen business owner raised issue too, with the fact that the website appeared to show some Enniskillen businesses “preferential treatment”, offering them a profile on the website while other Enniskillen traders did not feature at all.

Arguing that the website had unfairly used public funds to serve as a Business Directory for a select number of businesses in Enniskillen, they asked the Council to remove the website altogether.

They contended too, that because the creation of the website had only been considered after McCadden had won the marketing campaign contract, it was never properly put out to tender.

The website remained online, but all links to selected Enniskillen businesses were removed as was all information and images directly relating to specific retail outlets.

In its project plan McCadden recognised there were already “several existing sites” providing exhaustive detail on Enniskillen’s history, events, business offerings and available accommodation.

“There is no desire to replicate what is already in place,” it assured.

“It would be our intention for the site to act as a portal providing links to these and other appropriate sites, thereby providing consumers with a richer online experience of the town.” Another business representative in the town who contacted the Impartial Reporter, describes the website as “an unmitigated advertising shambles”.

“The website was backed by a £124,000 advertising campaign, and only managed to reach the ninth page of Google,” she said.

“There are already a number of websites in operation, promoting businesses, and giving an overview of Enniskillen and the greater Fermanagh area. They are privately funded websites, supported by local businesses, providing employment, and worldwide exposure.

“One site, VisitEnniskillen.com, has received over 170,000 hits in the past year. It has been in operation for almost four years, and should not have to compete with a grossly overpriced, publicly funded website, promoted by Fermanagh District Council.” A spokeswoman for Fermanagh District Council says McCadden was responsible for deciding the content of the site and was in charge of site maintenance until December 2014, when their contract came to an end.

“Through the branding and marketing tender there were a number of advertising campaigns,” said the spokeswoman, “The Steering Committee concluded that there needed to be a ‘call to action’ from this advertising and a website was proposed as the best way for people to get more information on Enniskillen. “There was a wide campaign promoting the existence of the website. It was included in all publicity material including flyers, advertisements placed in both local and national newspapers and the TV advertising as detailed in the attached document.

“The website represents a small part of a much larger branding and marketing campaign to promote Enniskillen. It was designed to promote Enniskillen and the details included on the site are very much a snapshot of the town giving a flavour of all that is on offer in Enniskillen. McCadden decided on the content of the site. It was not intended to include all businesses. The content was determined by the type of information potential visitors want access to when deciding whether to visit a particular location: For example information on visitor attractions, hotels, restaurants and shops.

“Finally, footfall surveys were conducted on 2nd, 5th and 8th August 2014 and results showed an increase of 11.16 per cent from interval surveys taken on the 2nd, 5th and 8th November 2013. A one day footfall survey was also completed prior to the commencement of Enniskillen Town Centre Revitalisation on 8th November 2012. Results from this showed an increase of 108.69 per cent between 8th November 2012 and 8th November 2013.”