News

Final Stage for Borough's Olympic Pool Dream

Saturday, May 05, 2007

North Down Borough Council has today (2 May 2007) launched details of its bid to bring Northern Ireland's first 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool to Bangor. A grant of £15 million is available from the Department of Cultfure, Arts and Leisure to build this much needed sports facility by march 2010, providing almost two years of use as a training facility prior to the 2012 Olympics. North Down Council intends to build the Olympic pool as part of a new leisure and aquatics centre for the Borough, representing an investment of more than £35million in state-of-the art sports facilities.

Mayor of North Down, Councillor Alan Leslie comments, "Our bid is the culmination of many months of hard work and we are confident that we have put together a strong proposal to bring the new facility to Bangor.
We will build the pool as part of a new leisure and aquatics centre, which we believe will enhance the facility's usage beyond what would be achieved through a stand-alone site. Opening the pool in 2010 would mean it could be used for training camps and competition heats prior to the London Olympics, which would be fantastic for sports fans."

He continued, "The economic benefits of the pool to North Down are significant. Through swimming events and training camps alone, it is envisaged it would contribute more than £220,000 to the wider local economy on an annual basis. All in all, therefore, this is an exciting time for North Down and we look forward to hearing the outcome of the bid in July.
The proposed site for the Olympic sized 50m pool and new leisure centre is Valentine's Playing Fields in Bangor. North Down Borough Councillors' plans have been developed by renowned leisure architects S & P,the company responsible for the Aquatics Centre for London 2012.
The facilities to be developed include:

* A 10 lane 50m pool (with 2 submersible booms to facilitate full
international long and short course facilities)

* A 5m diving pool

* Facilities for new aquatics clubs such as diving, water polo and synchronised swimming

* Strength and conditioning suites for swimmers

* Full adaptation for paralympic swimmers

* Headquarter facilities for Swim Ulster

* Spectator seating for up to 1,500 people.

Should funding not be made available to North Down to build the Olympic Pool, the Council will still open a new leisure facility at Valentine's Playing Fields in 2010. The facilities planned for the centre are many and varied including: swimming pools, family-orientated leisure water, a large health and fitness suite, two sports halls, a climbing wall, squash courts, outdoor football courts and children's activity area.This new centre will replace the Council's existing leisure centre on Castle Park Road in Bangor, which first opened in the 1970s and is now in need of modernisation.

While preparing its Olympic Pool Bid, North Down Borough Council undertook extensive consultation with potential users such as Swim Ulster. Paul Dennis, Head Coach at Bangor and also Coach of the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Swimming Team, is delighted to have been involved in the process and comments, "Northern Ireland needs an Olympic standard 50-metre pool if our young swimmers are to reach their true potential in this sport.

Currently they have to travel to Dublin or England to access the elite facilities they need to train effectively and that really is not satisfactory. The plans that North Down Borough Council has developed are very exciting and would provide a superb all-round training facility for the elite Ulster Squads, while complimenting the existing facilities at the University of Ulster's Sports Institute. We look forward to hearing the outcome of the bidding and seeing work begin to realise this much-needed facility.

He added, "We believe building the pool within a state-of-the-art leisure centre will be beneficial to our swimmers as well as to local people in the North Down area. Certainly, we would anticipate a significant growth in membership of Bangor Swimming Club (by swimmers at all levels) and we would be able to offer more than double the number of lessons that we can at the moment. Essentially whether you swim competitively, or for fun and fitness, this new facility will be of benefit to you."

It is expected that the outcome of the bid will be announced by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in July. Construction on-sitewould begin in mid-2008 and the pool would open by March 2010

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