Exciting proposals for Buncrana Leisure Centre

What he described as “exciting” proposals regarding Buncrana Leisure Centre are to be published imminently, according to Inishowen Municipal District's new Chief Executive, Bryan Cannon.

Mr Cannon, who was speaking at Tuesday's April meeting of Inishowen councillors, said he had been involved in progressing the Leisure Centre proposals in his previous Donegal County Council role.

He added: “We are at the stage now where the design team have some very exciting proposals for the site and for the lay out of the Leisure Centre. We just have a few tweaks to make in advance of the public consultation.

“The intention would be to share the designs with the members in the municipal district and the local committee, prior to the public consultation, but it will be a matter of weeks before these works will be complete.

“The designs are very exciting and I trust councillors and members of the public will be excited to see them. Council will also welcome the comments people will have to make on the designs.

“There has been a lot of patience shown and it has been a long road to go from when the leisure centre closed a good few years, to having our consultants appointed mid-covid, to being able to bring the proposals forward to this point. It will be exciting for Buncrana and the county in general to see the proposals for the leisure centre,” said Bryan Cannon.

Raising the Leisure Centre issue at the meeting, Cllr Jack Murray (Sinn Féin) said people were looking for progress on the matter.

Cllr Murray said: “You can't walk through the supermarket without somebody stopping you to talk about Buncrana Leisure Centre. Obviously mica is the primary issue across the county for people at a very personal level. However, the Leisure Centre is the biggest issue in terms of community infrastructure. People want to see it resolved.

“Swan Park and Cockhill Bridge have been dealt with but there has been a delay regarding Buncrana Leisure Centre. I spoke to Michael McGarvey [Director of Services] recently and he said the proposals needed to go to public consultation, which is fantastic.

“I would propose today, in advance, that if the proposals are completed in the next couple of days or weeks, we are ready to go to consultation and that progress can begin as quickly as possible. We are years behind where we should have been. The Leisure Centre should never have been closed, and closed for so long.

“I would like to propose we go forward now with the public consultation, on the design we have, and people get to have their input and we can go through whatever formal red tape procedures need to happen. We can't really overstate just how important the Leisure Centre is for people and how strongly people feel about it coming back to serve the entire population of this peninsula.

“We should not be sending our kids to Derry or having to pay private hotels to get swimming lessons, a lifesaving, life skill and an important part of life here for the for health and well-being of the Inishowen community, which cannot be overstated. We have the full support of the nine councillors here and the 37 councillors across the county Hopefully, we can proceed and move forward as soon as possible because we have waited too long,” said Cllr Murray.

Cllr Murray's proposal was seconded by Cllr Rena Donaghey (Fianna Fáil) who said the public wanted to know what stage the Leisure Centre proposals were at because Donegal County Council had allocated a huge amount of money to the project and it had been stalled for a long time.

Cllr Nicholas Crossan (Independent) said it was important people understood that funding for Buncrana Leisure Centre was coming through the Local Property Tax.