Sinn Féin Mournes Councillor Willie Clarke has spoken out after Newry Mourne and Down District Council received notification from the Parish of Maghera that the bid to purchase the former St Mary’s School site was unsuccessful.
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Cllr Willie Clarke is deeply disappointed that his proposal to build a new leisure centre on the Donard Park area was sidelined and the altrernative proposal to build on the St Mary’s School site collapsed when the Church sold to a private bidder.[/caption]
Councillor Willie Clarke said: “ I am bitterly disappointed that the Council have failed in its efforts to purchase the St Mary’s School site to build a new Leisure centre.
“Council officials have been trying for several weeks to get clarity from Parish officials on why the council bid was not accepted. The parish were entitled to sell the land to a higher bidder, but I believe they had a moral duty to agree a price with the Council to provide the opportunity of much needed leisure facilities for Newcastle.
“Sinn Féin warned that changing direction in regards the site for the new centre would seriously compromise the delivery of the new proposed leisure and health Centre.
“If we had stayed focussed and followed through on my proposal in the legacy Down District Council at the Recreation meeting on 11 September 2012 to build on the pitch area in Donard Park ( which an SDLP councillor seconded and the proposal was unanimously supported by all parties), we would have delivered a state of the art leisure and health centre that we could all have been proud of. Instead we are back to where we started.
“My proposal included permission for officers to appoint consultants to prepare detailed designs and a full business case to allow for planning approval, loan sanction and tender documents. And there was an indicative budget of £7.5million allocated for this proposal.
“This was the risk I warned the Council about, and the SDLP, UUP and DUP subsequently reneged on the Donard Park site. This was the fatal misjudgement that has left us in the situation we find ourselves in. The stark reality is if we had gone with the Donard Park site when the resources were available to build the leisure centre, contractors would be on site at this moment building the new centre.”
Cllr Willie Clarke added: “Sinn Féin agreed to investigate the procurement of the St Mary’s site, with the reservations that this course of action would result in resources not being available to construct the new build mainly due to other projects such as Down Leisure Centre, Newry Leisure Centre and Saintfield Community Centre taking priority over Newcastle Leisure Centre because of delays caused by attempting to purchase the St Mary’s site.
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Back to the drawing board: Sinn Féin Councillor Willie Clarke is upset the old St Mary’s School site has been sold leaving the Council proposal for a new leisure centre high and dry.[/caption]
“Sinn Féin supported resources to be placed in the rates to support the purchasing of the St Mary’s School site, only after receiving guarantees that a holistic process would be undertaken by the new Newry Mourne and Down District Council to deliver the ‘Gateway centre’. A full business case would have to be carried out which would include the potential revenue to be obtained from the current Newcastle Centre site if it is made available for the development of a new hotel.
“ But we are where we are. This is all now in the past tense. We cannot change the past but we can influence the future and we owe it to our children. We need to be innovative and develop positive initiatives to progress the building of our new Newcastle centre. It is essential our citizens have adequate leisure provision to improve mental and physical health. I still believe in the concept of the ‘Gateway centre’.”
Sinn Féin will be meeting Council directors to pull together an options paper for leisure provision in Newcastle said Cllr Willie Clarke and he added: “It is now vital that all political parties work collectively to deliver in the short-term, but to continue with the realisation of the Gateway centre in the longer-term.
“No matter how good plans are on paper, they need to be paid for and the Council’s budget is already severely limited by the demands that are being placed on hard pressed ratepayers who are increasingly over-burdened.”
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