Doubt cast on when - and if - new Ballymena leisure centre will be built despite getting the green light
A councillor in Ballymena has said it was “the height of nonsense” for councillors to vote on a new leisure centre for the town when no money has yet been found to build it.
Matthew Armstrong said that the £25m cost which has been touted for the project since at least 2020 is now out of date, and would likely be well below the true price of a new centre.
The plans, which were proposed by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, were unanimously approved by its planning committee last month.
The centre would stand on the former St Patrick’s Barracks site at Demesne Avenue next to the River Braid, some 400 metres (1,300ft) from the existing leisure centre, the Seven Towers, which it would replace.
Specifically, the plans say that the new leisure centre will contain the following amenities:
A 25m-long (82ft) eight-lane pool, a learner pool, a four-court sports hall, a cafe, a gym with weights and cardio equipment, a 30-bike spin studio, a clip-and-climb, a general-purpose room called a community hub, a soft play area, and a spa.
There will be spectator galleries for the pools, and "a children’s area, a splash pool and aqua play area".
The spa will consist of "treatment rooms along with a samarium [a kind of gentle sauna], rock sauna, herbal steam, and ice room, and a vitality pool".
The cafe will have room for 50 people, and will look out across Ecos Nature Park.
And there will be parking space for 228 cars (including 10 electric vehicle charging points).
But councillor Armstrong (TUV, Ballymena) told the News Letter that, despite the green light last month, it may never happen.
“The position is there's no money allocated for the building of it,” he said.
"There's an expectation, but I’m not nearly sure it’s a realistic one."
He said “there’s no way” it would come in at £25m, adding, “to my knowledge, it’s way more than that”.
The new centre has been mooted since at least 2016, but has been put “on the long finger,” he said, “and has sat in abeyance since then”.
One of the conditions of the planning approval is that building work must start within five years.
Is there is risk of it not happening at all?
"Yeah, in real terms there is,” he said.
“The can has been kicked down the road to the point where realistically it's unaffordable as things stand for council.
"I do know they’re looking at private operation models; I think Belfast City Council have gone with those kind of ideas.
"But there’s been nothing more substantive than that.
"Meanwhile, they plough money into the old one that’s about to fall down around them.”
He said it was "the height of nonsense” putting the blueprints through planning “when all they’re doing is going to raise the expectations of people that think it’s actually going to happen”.
Efforts were made to elicit a response from Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, but none had been forthcoming at time of writing.