Newcastle still waiting for indoor pool... 25 years on

8 October 2025

A QUARTER of a century after plans for a new leisure centre in the heart of Newcastle were unveiled, the multi-million pound project still hasn’t been delivered.

Consultants are to be appointed shortly to take forward the latest proposal featuring an indoor leisure pool, three 30-metre swimming lanes, dedicated heated play pool for children and an state-of-the-art gymnasium.

It’s proposed to build the new £12m centre to the rear and side of the current Newcastle Centre in Central Promenade, but lodging a formal planning application to pave the way for construction work to start is still some way off.

This week, the Recorder turns the clock back 25 years when the Newcastle 2000 community group was pushing for a new leisure centre in Donard Park with the majestic Mourne mountains providing a spectacularly stunning back as part of a new gateway centre.

The group’s membership included residents and business representatives who worked collectively over many months, seeking expert help from Strathclyde University’s planning department to come up with detailed drawings which included a set of

large glass windows at the side of the swimming pool looking out on the Mournes.

Long before a cable car ride into the mountains was proposed, the focus was on delivering a new leisure centre — complete with swimming pool — with the project described as a game changer for the resort.

Newcastle 2000 was leading from the front and spearheaded the drive to overhaul the resort’s leisure facilities, securing European funding to carry out a detailed feasibility study into the provision of a new indoor centre and swimming pool.

The group had started the process of selecting consultants to carry out a detailed study designed to come up with the costings to develop the facility as part of a major regeneration initiative.

Copies of the completed study were to be used to accompany the Newcastle group’s bid for funding to develop the new centre, with the document examining the entire concept and assess its viability to ensure it meets both the needs of local people and tourists.

A business plan was also to be produced as part of the bid to secure funding from a wide range of agencies.

News that consultants were to be appointed came seven months after a series of concept ideas were put on public display in the town to provide local people with an opportunity to air their views on future development plans in the resort.

Features local people wanted to see in the multi-million pound development included an indoor pool, sporting facilities and a theatre/cinema facility with ancillary facilities.

Plans were laid for a children’s play area with a picnic and barbecue facility, with the Mourne Heritage Trust working on a new walking trail, in tandem with an interpretation and visitor guide.

And the feasibility of developing a small museum dedicated to the area’s association with Mourne granite was also being investigated with a new trail running from the proposed museum, through the forest to the old quarry.

It was hoped to appoint contractors by the end of June 2000 when the scheme’s detailed costings were to be made public, paving the way to identify potential funders.

Funding for the feasibility study was provided under the European Union’s Interreg programme, with Newcastle joining a network of six other partners spearheading similar projects across Europe and in the United Kingdom.

Representatives from the partnerships groups, which included Belgium and Holland, met recently in the Isle of Wight to prepare detailed plans for the development of coastal towns.

But the project never saw the light of the day and while the proposal had enthusiastic supporters there were also detractors and the multi-million pound proposal was consigned to the shelf to gather dust.

All eyes are now on the latest indoor leisure centre for Newcastle after subsequent plans for a new facility Donard Park and at the site of the former St Mary’s Girls’ Primary School at Shanslieve Drive both failed.

Newry, Mourne and Down Council was keen to acquire the school site for a new centre, but lost out in a bidding war to supermarket giant Lidl which has since opened a brand new store and where a new home and education centre for the Mourne Mountain RescueTeam is under construction.

It seems that when it comes to new leisure development in the resort, it’s never plain sailing and the waters are rarely smooth.

It was recently suggested that out-of-town sites for the new leisure centre should be considered, given the restricted nature of the Main Street location for the current proposal and the absence of major parking.

But council officials have warned that going down this particular route has the potential to set the planned investment back by up to a decade.

However, they have been instructed to provide local politicians with a list of the potential sites outside the town which were examined for the new £12m leisure centre, with explanations why they were rejected.

Council officials insist the preferred option is to build the ultra-modern complex in the centre of the town, explaining initial designs have been drawn up and consultants are to be appointed to drive the scheme forward.

The local authority says it cannot recommend considering another site at this time “given the risk associated with it” and recommends sticking with the current location, with public engagement planned once the consultancy team is appointed to examine various design options for the site.

Twenty five years after the last plan for a new leisure centre in the resort and the failed bid to develop a velodrome in Donard Park, all eyes are on the latest proposal.

With three months of the year to go and consultants yet to be appointed to drive forward the scheme, it could be 2028 before the new leisure centre could open for business — almost three decades after there was so much hope around the Newcastle 2000 plan.

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