Campaign group prepare to make legal challenge

They have launched a Justgiving page to support the costs of the challenge and within days of setting it up have raised in excess of £1,200.

The group said: “Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council have agreed to sell 22 acres of Craigavon City Park to Southern Regional College to build a Further Education Campus beside the Lake.

“They did not consult or consider us in their decision. As well as the erection of a 19,500m2 building, associated parking and two roads that this will bring to our park, it also will bring over 3,000 people and 4,800 cars to the park every day.

“Effectively our park will become a college campus and it will be lost to us forever. We need to challenge Council’s decision to sell a well used community resource without any consultation with us as residents and users of the park.

“We have the support of more than 5,000 local people and we now need to raise a legal challenge against ABC Council.

“To do this we need to raise funds. Our initial target of £220 was the amount we needed to pay the application fee to apply for a judicial review. We hit this and now we need to raise an additional £10,000 to cover Court fees.

“Anything raised above this will pay for the cost of our legal representation. Council made this decision without considering or consulting with resident’s and park users as key stakeholders. Processes and procedures have not been followed and we have been treated unfairly. Please help us challenge them. Any donation however small will bring us a step closer to saving our park.”