IT has been confirmed that the council will not be supporting Down GAA’s application for EU funding assistance for its Ballykinlar centre of excellence. This is due to the project being “in direct competition” with the local authority’s plans to develop a Warrenpoint community hub.
This was revealed at Monday’s meeting of the council’s Economy, Regeneration and Tourism Committee, where the matter of support for Down GAA’s PEACEPLUS funding application was discussed in closed session. After the meeting reopened to the press, committee chair Mickey Ruane (Sinn Féin, Crotlieve) said that “council notes the application for the Down County Board multi-sports hub at Ballykinlar site, through financial assistance”. “Unfortunately, council are not in a position to provide support to the Down County Board for their application to PEACEPLUS for a centre of participation, wellbeing and shared learning hub, as it is in direct competition with our wellbeing hub in Warrenpoint,” he stated.
Planning permission for the 12.5-hectare Ballykinlar development – set to include four full-size pitches (three of which will be floodlit), a new two-storey building that will contain a covered spectator stand, office space, player facilities, a museum and a multiuse games area – on the village’s former army base and at Ballykinlar GAC’s existing grounds was granted in July 2021.
Feargal McCormack, chairman of the Ballykinlar project advisory board, told a special meeting of council in March 2022 that the cost of the development would be “£10m plus VAT roughly”, and said that the board had concluded that the best value for money option is “to proceed with this project in one phase”. He also stated that, at that point, there was “a reasonable prospect” that it could be operational within three years. Last June, the council submitted a planning application for a ‘two-storey community facility building and outdoor space’ at Warrenpoint’s Clonallon Park.
A planning statement highlighted that the Warrenpoint Health & Wellbeing Hub would be ‘a modern, fit for purpose and sustainable building to provide community spaces and facilities for the local population and community groups’. ‘It is expected that construction of the new community facility and associated work would start in 2024 and be completed by 2025,’ it read.