‘Patience’ needed as plans continue for new leisure centre

A council boss has appealed for ‘patience’ over the planned redevelopment of Gortgonis Leisure Centre in Coalisland.

The proposed leisure centre will house a community hall, a gym, day-care facilities and associated ancillary accommodation.

It is also proposed to replace the existing pitch with a floodlit 3G synthetic pitch and six-lane running track, with outdoor play areas.

Also to be built, adjacent to the planned sports facilities, is a new Irish-language primary school.

The Gortgonis plans were mentioned at a recent council meeting.

Independent councillor Dan Kerr commented: “It’s just regarding the Gortgonis project. I’d like to propose that the council facilitates a public meeting for residents and the general public for an update.

“A lot of local residents contacted me recently about the lack of play park provisions in the Gortgonis area.

“I had requested that council officers publish a list of nearby play parks on our social media outlets, just to make local residents aware that there are nearby play park facilities in the absence of Gortgonis, but unfortunately this list hasn’t been published. So I’d like to propose that.

“I would also like more regular updates regarding the Gortgonis project, because I had raised about the disrepair of the facilities up there, the likes of the play park and the 4G, and the answer I got at the time was, ‘Is there really a point in spending a significant amount of money regarding the uplift of these pieces of equipment, whenever the Gortgonis project isn’t that far away?’

“The project has limped from year to year, so if I had known about that, I would have said ‘No, we need to get these repairs done right away’.

“So I just would like to propose a public meeting.”

Mid Ulster District Council chief executive, Adrian McCreesh explained that a lot of planning would have to be conducted before a public meeting can be arranged.

He stated: “I don’t want to get into the reasons for the delay tonight, because the reasons for the delay do not entirely sit with this chamber.

“There are multiple other players involved in the Gortgonis project, many of whom should be more accountable for the delay than Mid Ulster District Council.

“In relation to the proposal for a public meeting, I will encourage my team to do a public meeting when we have a proposal to present to the public.

“We will have a meeting with the DEA [representatives], as I understand it.

“When we get the bones of the appropriate project to present to the public, then we will go back out to the public and publicly engage.

“But the objective for us at this point in time, given the requirements of the Irish-language school, given the requirements of the other partners who are looking to avail of the site or get access to the site, our job in the immediate term is to develop a workable but deliverable project for the people of Coalisland as a matter of urgency, and Ryan [Black, strategic director of Communities and Place] and the team are absolutely focused on doing that.

“So I would encourage Cllr Kerr to perhaps let us work on developing a concept, in order to present to the public before we engage in public meetings.

“August 6 is the date of the meeting. I understand the urgency, I understand the desire in Coalisland to get this, because we all want it moving.

“It’s going to be a wonderful project, but the last project started out [as something] realistic, and perhaps expanded to the point where delivery became very difficult.

“Then we went through a phase of facilitating other requirements, including the school and other service providers.

“Now our job is to devise a project that we can deliver for the people of Coalisland in a very reasonable time frame, and that’s exactly what Ryan has been tasked to do, and he will engage with the DEA members.

“And when we’re not engaging with them, we will be preparing concepts to present to the members.

“When the members agree a course of action, and that is subsequently agreed by the appropriate Development committee, then by all means I will be more than happy to put our team out to any meeting to engage with the public.

“But there’s a course of work to be done, and I suggest over the summer months we do that, and perhaps aim for the autumn for public engagement.”