Plea to demolish notorious flats in Craigavon

According to SDLP Cllr Thomas Larkham, an economic appraisal is to be taken on the future of the flats and shops.

He said: “More needs to be done to regenerate this area which has been the poor cousin of Brownlow for far too long. The level of anti-social behaviour is intolerable and short term measures to improve the situation need and should be deployed.”

Dolores Kelly MLA said: “Statutory agencies have been aware of the situation for many years. Any actions taken to date have been woefully inadequate. People feel let down and believe the best solution is having the flats knocked down and the area redesigned.”

Cllr Larkham said: “We are calling on the Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey to invest in both the area and the people of Moyraverty. We look forward to the outcome of the economic appraisal and will continue the fight for Moyraverty to get its fair share of investment.”

However, Chairman of Moyraverty Arts and Drama Society (MADS) Kieran Corr said he is greatly disappointed the council is to sell off the community centre.

“We are all devastated as we had hoped that council would have had the vision to upgrade this facility. The area in question needs a major regeneration plan and this could have been the start.

“It will probably be bulldozed down and this facility will be lost forever. As a community group we would have certainly been interested in using this facility and we are sure there is a few others as well if it was fit for purpose. We hire out a unit at Moyraverty but it is to small for our numbers. The Hub cannot accommodate community groups on a regular basis and this facility may have covered that void. We ask council to reconsider the decision and come up with a regeneration plan for the area which has lacked investment for years.”

A spokesperson for Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council said; “The Moyraverty premises is a council owned building. It was identified as a surplus asset and approved for disposal by Council. The building was previously identified as surplus as part of a review of Craigavon Community Facilities, approximately 10 years ago.

“At the time three community facilities, including Moyraverty were replaced with an investment of approximately £3m to provide Brownlow Hub as one Central facility.

“The Moyraverty facility is vacant and there is currently no proposed replacement”.

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