Council plan to invest £2million for essential maintenance at the Orchard leisure Centre in Armagh.
The money, from Council’s capital reserves, is being pumped in for works around outdated boiler and pipeworks, among other issues with the ageing centre.
Hopes of a new leisure centre appear to be years off – despite 2016 reports of a new £30m leisure centre – and while £2million may be construed as a sticky plaster for a problem which requires open heart surgery, the investment should increase the longevity of the current facility.
Armagh City councillor, Scott Armstrong, says he has been encouraged by council plans to invest over £2 million in response to ongoing concerns around maintenance and problems with the facility that have effected the experience of visitors to the site for many months.
The DUP representative said he would continue to lobby council officials on the site, and also on the necessity of continuing preparatory work on the longer term vision of a new leisure centre for the wider district.
Cllr Armstrong said: “There have been a number of issues that have affected the full suite of facilities at the Orchard Leisure Centre site and I know that it has been frustrating for local users who have had to put up with faults that have remain unresolved for many months.
“The council is preparing to invest in the site and I welcome the spend and whilst people may argue that the money would be better spend on a new site the reality is a new facility is some years away and the current facility urgently needs invested in to resolve the ongoing issues.
“I know that the last larger scale investment in the site did make important improvements, however, that was years ago and with the passage of time and the type of environment it is with humidity, high usage and all that goes with these types of facilities it has come to the time where again a more significant spend is required to prolong the life of centre until a new facility is opened.”
