Waterside sports hub to cost £4.9m

A NEW sports centre earmarked for St Columb's Park will cost Derry City Council a capital contribution of almost £4.9million to complete.

Yesterday a meeting of the council Development Committee was due to decide whether or not to take the project to the next stage at a total spend of 133,540, as the Sentinel went to press.

The exciting plans for a state-of-the-art North West Regional Sports Campus (NWRSC) in the heart of the Waterside include international class judo, wrestling and climbing centres.

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A performance development centre, fitness suite, multi-sports hall and 3rd generation floodlit soccer pitch will also be complemented by changing rooms and offices for Sports NI and Coaching Ireland.

Councillors were yesterday advised that developing the NWRSC will cost roughly 6.6m over 25 years, whilst simply doing nothing with the existing St Columb's Park leisure centre would cost 3.3m over the same period.

A report to the committee stated: "The preferred option has a estimated capital outlay of 6.574million (including optimum bias). Sport NI have issued an indicative letter of offer for 1.7m and Council approval has been obtained to contribute 1m from the capital fund.

"This leaves a shortfall of 3.874million that must be addressed in order to proceed to the full business case."

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Notwithstanding estimated losses in the first years of the project, it is projected by its fifth year of operation NWRSC will be making surpluses.

This contrasts with the current financial situation at St Columb's Park which runs an annual deficit of 188,000 including loan charges.

The initial costs of the new centre will result from marketing and publicity drives, councillors were advised.

In order to make progress on the plan approval was yesterday sought for a funding commitment of 133,540 to bring the scheme to the next stage.

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It was suggested by council officers that this could be taken from Council's 1m capital fund contribution to the project.

The larger capital costs in future could be paid for through a combination of loan charges and the sale of the MOD site adjacent to St Columb's Park.

Councillors were due to decide on whether to bring the project to the next stage of detailed design at a total spend of 133,540.

Additionally they were asked to "confirm, in principle, that Council will fund the shortfall of the capital monies for the project which is estimated to be 3.874million (including optimum bias) bringing the Council's contribution to 4.874million."

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