Site location (in white) for new Ballycastle Leisure Centre
Plans for a new leisure centre in Ballycastle have taken a step forward.
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has accepted a proposal of application notice for the work, which sets out the plans in advance of a full planning application.
Located at the Quay Road sports grounds in Ballycastle, the new leisure centre will include a swimming pool, gym, studios and associated accommodation.
There will also be a new accessible play park and BMX pump track along with alteration to site access, additional car and coach parking and landscape features.
A full planning application is expected to follow.
There will be a public consultation drop-in event in Sheskburn House in Ballycastle from 3pm-9pm on August 23, 2023.
It comes after the project secured £8.1m from round two of the government’s levelling up fund in January this year.
At the time, Ballycastle Sinn Féin Councillor Cara McShane described the funding as “brilliant news for Ballycastle and the wider Glens community”.
She added: “The indoor leisure facility for Ballycastle has been a legacy Moyle Council project for many years. As noted in the application, Ballycastle has been ‘starved of investment.’
“The only indoor leisure facilities are in a 60+-year-old converted school with no swimming pool and the community here has long campaigned for facilities/services equivalent with other parts of Causeway Coast and Glens Council area.
“The total investment in this wet leisure centre is around £15m, which will act as a growth stimulus. When completed, the indoor leisure facility will compliment Council’s investment in the Shared Campus project on Moyle Road which will provide for outdoor pitches – including the conversion of a grass soccer pitch to 3G; floodlighting; upgrade of three court sports hall to four court; and upgrade of changing and ancillary accommodation.”