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All-Ireland winner calls on council to explain sports complex decision

Residents protest after council rejects plans for sports complex
Residents protest after council rejects plans for sports complex Residents protest after council rejects plans for sports complex

FORMER GAA Allstar Kieran McKeever has condemned a decision by Causeway Coast and Glens Council not to go ahead with a “much needed” sports complex in Dungiven.

Work on the planned £2.5 million sports complex, including halls, a gym and 3G facilities, was to begin next month until the project was rejected at a council meeting last Tuesday.

Hundreds of Dungiven residents and members of the area’s sports clubs held a rally yesterday in protest at the decision, carrying banners which read ‘All we want for Christmas is our new sports facilities’ and ‘No politics in sport’.

The area’s sports clubs and community groups have banded together to form the ‘Dungiven and Area Sports Forum’.

Speaking on behalf of the forum, Derry All-Ireland winner and former Irish News columnist Mr McKeever called on council members to visit the town and explain their decision.

“We as a community want the elected council members to visit us and to tell the children and parents of this community why they have rejected us the right, a statutory right, to our sports facilities,” he said.

“If this decision is not overturned we the rate payers will have to pay close to £1 million of our own money to renovate the existing building and still we will be without other much needed facilities.

“If this is a political decision by the council then it is wrong, for there is no room for politics in sport.

“We would urge the members of the Causeway Coast and Glens Council, who are elected to serve all members of the community, to reconsider their decision."

Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín said last week that the sports complex could have been built at no cost to ratepayers, as a £2.5 million grant was approved by her department.

However, unionist members of the council voted not to proceed with the project due to a £339,000 shortfall in funding.

Ulster Unionist councillor Daryll Wilson said that the council previously banned spending on other projects until it had an overview of the entire council area.

“With DCAL providing £2.5 million (towards the Dungiven project), that means there is a considerable financial shortfall of around £400,000. So it is not fully funded,” he said.

However, Ms Ní Chuilín said the shortfall could have been met by a grant which had been approved by the Landfill Community Fund but which required the council’s agreement.

Speaking last week she said she was “extremely disappointed that this much-needed project has been voted down by some members of the council”.

She said the project was planned to address a real need in the Dungiven area.

“In my view, councillors who voted against this much needed community facility do not represent the views of the majority of residents who want to move forward positively and enhance all of the council area,” she said.