Concerns as minutes from a special confidential council meeting on new costs for Dundonald Ice Bowl have been released

However, councillors have hit out after details of updated plans were revealed during a behind closed doors meeting and are not being made public.

At a full meeting of Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council (LCCC) minutes from the special Communities and Wellbeing Committee meeting on December 12 were ratified. However at least one elected representative is unhappy at the lack of detail in the minutes regarding additional plans for the £60m Dundonald Ice Bowl renovation.

The minutes do, however, outline how the SDLP (Cllr Gallen) and Sinn Fein (Cllrs Bassett, Carlin, and Deputy Mayor McCleave) voted against the new plans.

The reasons for voting against the recommendations were not included in the published minutes.

Castlereagh South SDLP councillor John Gallen stood up in chambers to protest the omission from the special committee minutes and asked that they be included.

Speaking outside chambers, he said: “At the end of the day this is ratepayers’ money which will pay for this. They are entitled to know if the costs are going up and it should not be kept a secret from them.

“In September this year the SDLP opposed a vote to spend £52 million on the project over the next three years, with a further £12.2 million pledged from the UK Government’s Department for Levelling Up.”

The special meeting had been called for members to hear an addendum to the full business case for the Ice Bowl.

The council’s director of leisure and community wellbeing, gave a confidential report on anticipated costs for the project, together with an overview of the risk management processes and the staffing structure in place to support the development.

Cllr Gallen added: “The SDLP also raised concerns about the impact of this financial commitment on ratepayers and under-served constituents in other parts of the LCCC area.

“Now we learn that before the builders have moved in the costs have gone up by a significant amount.

"The more money that is redirected to the Ice Bowl project, the less there is to share around other needy community projects.”