Concern over slow progress at Exploris

Concern over slow progress at Exploris

1 April 2015

PORTAFERRY councillor Joe Boyle has said he is concerned with a lack of progress in the development of the Exploris aquarium.

After fears that the aquarium would close, Ards Borough Council accepted an offer of almost £1m from the Executive in September to keep it open and redevelop it.

“I detect a lack of interest within the overall thinking of the Council during the winding down of the Ards Council and certainly from within the commencement of the new Ards and North Down Council,” said councillor Boyle. 

“I equally get the impression that this suits many elected members whom I believe are simply not interested if anything ever happens to the facility.

“The reality is that many within the new Ards and North Down Council know very little about the facility or indeed the area and surrounding area of Portaferry. There was a massive campaign from many locally based organisations and a small number of elected representatives, securing up to the £1m required funding to enable the facility to be refurbished.

“Minister Mark H Durkan MLA, given the recent cuts to his budget from within the Executive in Stormont, has recently announced a reduction in the funding offered to Exploris from £914,000 to £700,000. 

“The Council was to have had somewhere in the region of approximately £400,000 spent by this time therefore carrying approximately £600,000 into the new financial year. The Council has therefore failed to achieve this target by not having spent any of the previously agreed funding.

“The Council has now agreed to seek a meeting with the Minister Mark H Durkan MLA to discuss this reduction to the original offer. This is simply once again a going through the motions stunt, given that if the funding was reinstated in the morning there is still no plan in going forward with the Exploris facility. There is clearly a lot of anger within the locally based organisations who fought so hard to secure this funding.”