£1.7m park plans up for discussion

£1.7m park plans up for discussion

14 August 2013

BALLYNAHINCH residents are being urged to have their say on plans for a new £1.7m town park.

A consultation event will be held tomorrow evening in the town’s Market House, where phased plans for the regeneration of Lough Park will be on display for feedback.

The first phase of the proposal includes a full size fenced and floodlit 3G pitch for sports, new pathways and a raised boardwalk over part of the bog land.

Other proposals for the park include interpretative panels and picnic benches, community allotments and play areas.

The Lough Park area currently has two football pitches which are only useable during the summer as well as a large nature area that is overgrown and a series of walkways that are subject to flooding.

With regeneration spearheaded by the Ballynahinch Olympic and Hillcrest Drive Community Partnership over two years ago, money was injected into the enterprise via the EU’s Peace III programme and the Transform Your Patch Initiative, with the scheme to be delivered by environmental charity Groundwork NI.

Groundwork NI secured £510,000 worth of EU funding to develop the proposals, and in January Down Council also committed to a long-awaited £400,000 to secure project development.

Local councillor Mickey Coogan described reaching the public consultation

phase as “exciting times” for Lough Park and Ballynahinch.

“With some funding applications already submitted and plans to submit others we hope to transform Lough Park into a well used, shared space that can become a focal point as a town park for Ballynahinch,” he said.

“I would encourage all those interested in your local park to come along to this public meeting and find out what all is going on, contribute any ideas and find out how you could become involved.”

Mel Waddell, Senior Project Development Officer at Groundwork NI, said: ”We are hoping to use this current consultation event to inform residents and those in Ballynahinch of the first phase regeneration proposals of the 3G pitch and increased access pathways as well as possible future phases of regeneration for the park.

“We look forward to working in partnership with Ballynahinch Olympic and Hillcrest Drive Community Partnership and Down District Council on progressing all environmental regeneration proposals for Lough Park.”