Dundonald Ice bowl redevelopment row as councillors hear of confidential costs hike before work begins

And some Lisburn and Castlereagh councillors have hit out as details of updated plans revealed during a behind closed doors meeting are not being made public.

At this week’s full council meeting minutes from the special Communities and Wellbeing Committee meeting on December 12 were ratified.

The minutes outline how the SDLP and Sinn Fein voted against the plans for the £60m Dundonald Ice Bowl renovation. The reasons for voting against the recommendations were not included in the published minutes. SDLP representative, John Gallen protested 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.

Cllr Gallen added: “The SDLP also raised concerns about the impact of this financial commitment on ratepayers and underserved 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.

“Long overdue investment is needed in the chronically underfunded areas like Carryduff, Four Winds and Newtownbreda.“For the last few years I have been campaigning for a fair deal for these areas, which have not had sufficient attention paid by LCCC or its predecessor.”

Mayor Andrew Gowan highlighted the rapid process of adopting all seven committee minutes at the full council meeting, the last meeting before Christmas.

He said: “I think this must be some kind of record, the meeting took only 25mins, I think ABC (Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon) had it before that at 31 minutes.”