Contractor and site work target for campus

Plans were lodged for permission to develop the £8m Waterside campus earlier this year. The new complex will comprise mountaineering, judo, wrestling and multi-purpose halls together with fitness and strength and conditioning suites, changing accommodation, coach education spaces, offices and ancillary accommodation.

In addition to developing NWRSC - amongst a range of other projects - the City Engineer’s Department also hopes to deliver the Fountain MUGA on site by the end of 2011/12.

Details of all of the Department’s goals for the remainder of the financial year are contained in the City Engineer’s Department Annual Report and Plan 2011/12.

Other priorities include providing strategic guidance on the ILEX Regeneration Plan and implementing the ‘Eco-City,’ ‘Transport Catalyst’ and other catalyst elements of that plan.

Equality, the Department says it will “lead and chair the Infrastructure Group of City Culture 2013 comprising senior representatives of the Culture Company, Council, DRD, ILEX, and Planning Service in planning and assisting in the delivery of venue, and accommodation, infrastructure, transportation solutions, city dressing, environmental improvement schemes and municipal services in support of the programmed activities for City of Culture 2013.”

It also wants to start Phase 1 of the East Bank Riverside Greenway into St Columb’s Park from the site of the new Peace Bridge at Ebrington this autumn and to complete a detailed design of the St Columb’s Park House restoration project, with progress to tender and commencement of work on site.

Biodiversity improvements in Claudy, Oak Woods and Killaloo and the commencement of work on the Learmount Biodiversity Trail and Eglinton Village Trail section of the Faughan Valley Heritage Trail and on the Beech Hill and Oaks to Killaloo sections of the River Faughan Access Scheme are also on the cards.

The report highlights the need to complete the tender process for the £9m Culmore Landfill Site remediation, landscape and habitat restoration project and to appoint a contractor and commence works on site by early 2012.

The Walled City Lighting Project should also commence on site by early 2012, whilst the City Engineer’s Department also intends investigating and potentially asserting three public rights of way.

As well as outlining in extensive detail the plan of attack for 2011/12 the ‘Annual Report’ also sets out the City Engineer’s Department’s key achievements in 2010/11.

“In summary, major progress across all sections of the City Engineer’s Department has been made in relation to the actions and objectives set out in the annual plan at the beginning of the year,” the report notes.

This includes achieving a Council area recycling rate of 32 per cent and meeting the stringent 2010/11 Landfill Diversion Targets in respect of the landfilling of municipal waste.

There were also significant improvements in the Street Cleansing Service across the City and District with high quality maintenance of the new City Centre Public Realm in Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place and approximately 90 per cent of streets surveyed across the city in the independent Tidy NI borough cleanliness surveys recording high standards of cleanliness of Grade B and above in 2010/11.

There was also a further reduction in carbon emissions from council buildings in 2010/11 resulting in an 18 per cent reduction in emissions on average annual 2001-2006 base levels.

The report hailed the successful advancement and delivery of Council’s Capital Infrastructure programme including the Phase 1 external restoration of the Guildhall.

There was also the completion of all design works, consultation and masterplanning of both the £4.5m Brooke Park and £9m Culmore Landfill Site restoration projects.

The report also noted a further reduction in the City Engineer’s Department sickness absence rates and costs of over 20 per cent in 2010/11 by comparison with 2009/10 with 2010/11 levels now over 40 per cent lower than those of 2007/8.

There was a further reduction in the City Engineer’s Department overtime and mileage costs of over 8 per cent and 11 per cent respectively on 2009/10 levels.