New hope for improvements to Newtownstewart sports ground

PLANS are to be created for improvements and new changing facilities at a sports facility in Newtownstewart.

Derry City and Strabane District Council has agreed to develop an improvement masterplan for facilities at Vaughan’s Holm.

At this month’s Health and Community Committee meeting Sinn Féin councillor Paul Boggs put forward a motion at the behest of fellow Sinn Féin member Caroline Devine, who is not a Committee member.

The motion requested that officers draft a masterplan that would include new changing facilities and play provision at the green space, which contains open park space with playing fields and is used by local sports clubs.

The motion also requested a report on short and medium-term changing facility options.

Councillor Devine noted that she had been requesting appropriate facilities at the site since 2023, as there is currently only one changing unit.

She added: “It has been upgraded but that unit can only accommodate one team. This has proven to be really problematic for one of the clubs there that uses the council pitch on a regular basis, Newton United.

“They are the only club playing in the Fermanagh and Western League who don’t have adequate changing facilities.

“Last week initial options for siting the changing facilities were presented to councillors, and at that meeting I also raised the issue of play provision on the site.

“There’s a small play park there but council’s Play Plan recommends [it] is upgraded to either a neighbourhood or a district play park, so there would then need to be toilet facilities provided on the site.

“There’s a canoe club, anglers use the site [and] there’s a beautiful riverside walkway, so there is really great potential to develop the site and make it a welcoming space for the residents [and] visitors.

“A masterplan [would] ensure a coordinated and a cohesive approach as that will include all the stakeholders and council departments.”

UUP Alderman Derek Hussey supported the motion and noted that talks around play provision had been ongoing since a 2017 flood that “basically wrecked the play park”.

“The request for the upgrading from a local park to neighbourhood came out of the Playboard survey that this council initiated but nothing has happened since,” he added. “So it’s absolutely essential that this masterplan is put in place.

“The changing room facility is important from the perspective of the club, and that particular issue is going to have to be addressed.

“It’s a requirement of the local league that clubs provide changing facilities and the clubs are utilising a council facility, so there’s an incumbency and council to agree to the short -term solution to that particular problem.”

Cap; At May’s Health and Community Committee meeting, councillor Caroline Devine requested a masterplan around play provision and changing facilities at Vaughan’s Holm. (pic; DCSDC)

Andrew Balfour, Local Democracy Reporter