Oh I say…. New Derry sports complex to feature tennis courts, full-size football pitches and cricket facilities
Plans have been lodged for a massive new sports development in Derry which will include full-sized football pitches, tennis courts and cricket facilities.
The new Clondermot Sport Pitch Project development is being proposed at the site of the former Clondermot High School in the Waterside of the city..
The new facility will include a full sized natural turf multi-use pitch for soccer, rugby and Gaelic games, with ball stop fencing and floodlighting.
In addition, the site will also feature a full size synthetic 3G soccer pitch which will include three mini soccer pitches, which also have floodlighting and ball stop fencing.
The proposal also includes provision for four synthetic tennis courts with fencing and flood lighting, and four synthetic cricket wickets and practice net facilities, which again will feature fencing asnd floodlighting.
Provision has also been made in the planning application for a new changing area which will feature six team changing rooms and staff facilities.
There will also be pedestrian, cycle, vehicular access, car parking, site drainage, street lighting, and perimeter landscaping.
The application has been lodged by the site’s owner, Derry City and Strabane District Council with the local planning authority, which is also Derry City and Strabane District Council.
Consultation documents have also been issued to the council’s Environment Health department, Foyle Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission, Transport NI and NI Water
The council took over planning powers from the Department of the Environment (DoE), on April 1.
Councillors will now be asked to either approve or refuse the plans at a future meeting of its Planning Committee.
The Irish Street site has been the focus of much discussion in relation to its development potential following the closure of Clondermot High School almost ten years ago.
Both it and Faughan Valley High School closed in 2007, with the schools merging to become Lisneal College.
Plans were unveiled in September of that year for a massive new development at the same site which was to have included Derry City Council offices and a new training centre for young people, which would have seen the involvement of the North West Regional College (NWRC) and the local health trust.
The project was at the time being overseen by the Waterside Development Trust.
In July 2010, it was then recommended that the old Derry City Council take on ownership of two pitches and changing facilities after any improvement work needed to ensure that the facilities are fully fit for purpose was carried out by the Department of Social Development (DSD).
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