Tourist centre favoured for Newcastle complex

5 November 2014

DOWN Council officials are to begin work on plans for a new tourist and well-being facility in Newcastle after proposals for a swimming pool complex were ped.

However, it is likely to be years before work gets underway on the project which is not on the council’s four-year capital development programme.

Senior officials from the shadow Newry, Mourne and Down super council have asked for a new business case for a centre to be drawn up and have pledged their commitment to a new wet weather centre for Newcastle.

Their decision to order the new business case came after the Recorder reported last week that Down Council’s original plans for a traditional leisure centre complex, with 25-metre swimming pool, did not sit well with senior officials from the super council.

With a new swimming pool complex being built in Downpatrick, and another already in Kilkeel, the council officials felt the business case for a 25-metre pool in the resort could not be justified.

Now Down Council officials have been asked to draw up new plans for a centre which will fit in with Newcastle’s position as one of the premier tourism resorts in Northern Ireland. The new plans could include a water facility similar to the adventure pools at the Lisburn Leisureplex and the Waterworld complex in Portrush.

The plans will also include a well-being aspect where local residents will be able to use facilities such as a fitness suite and multi-purpose hall to improve their health. When the leisure centre was first proposed several years ago the South Eastern Health Trust said it would contribute up to £1m to relocate its health clinic to the new centre as part of the well-being facility. It is not known if this offer is still on the table.

Crucially, the officials have been told to look at all council-owned land in Newcastle as potential sites for the new centre, including Donard Park, Castle Park and Islands Park.

Down Council is still bidding for the site of the former St. Mary’s girls primary school, adjacent to Donard Park, which it had hoped would be the site of the new leisure centre. However, if the bid is accepted by the Catholic church the purchase will have to be approved by councillors from the super council which has not budgeted for such a purchase.

There were a flurry of meetings last week between Newcastle councillors and the new chief executive of the Newry, Mourne and Down super council, Liam Hannaway.

Councillors revealed that Mr. Hannaway accepted that a wet weather centre is needed in Newcastle but rejected arguments that it should be a traditional, swimming pool-based complex.

He argued that the new super council needs to maximise tourist potential in the area and Newcastle is central to that. He told the councillors the favoured development is a tourist centre in Newcastle with a well-being facility attached.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the existing Newcastle Centre is in particularly poor condition and will cost at least £600,000 to upgrade. A final decision will have to be made within 12 months on whether the centre should be refurbished or fully or partially closed pending the opening of a new complex.

Newry, Mourne and Down Council issued a short statement after last week’s Recorder story which said the council has not formally discussed the leisure centre issue.

“Newry and Mourne and Down District Council wishes to clarify, in respect of the Down Recorder’s story dated October 29 regarding the Newcastle Leisure Centre, that no discussion has ever taken place in regard to the provision of a Leisure Centre in Newcastle,” said the statement.

“The Shadow Council has undertaken a structural survey of many of its key buildings, including the current Newcastle Centre, to aid its preparation of a Capital Programme 2015-2019.”

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