Market Yard Proposal 'Would Boost Jobs'

Around 100 construction jobs will be created if an imaginative Co Londonderry museum scheme eventually gets the green light.

Although Lottery funds have been refused, Coleraine Borough Council is hoping to proceed anyway after it lodged an initial Planning Application for the prestigious Market Yard Project.

The initiative aims to include a new home for Coleraine Regional Museum and Coleraine Regional Library - with visitor information services - public event space and café within the original 19th Century listed walls of the Market Yard.

The January application included a substantial site model that was on public display in Coleraine Borough Council headquarters at the time.


Councillor Adrian McQuillan Chair of the Council's Project Committee commented: "The Market Yard project will regenerate a neglected part of Coleraine Town Centre. It's an exciting building that has already created a lot of buzz," he said, noting that the Market Yard was originally built by the Corporation of Coleraine in 1829 when demand for market space in the Diamond increased, and only ceased functioning as a cattle market in the early 1980s.

Now, the economic downturn has ironically given the stalled project a new lease of life after the Council failed twice to win a Heritage Lottery grant of £2.8m.

It is now hoping to make use of revised - cheaper - construction costs to push ahead.

It has already spent almost £500,000 on fees and reports to kick-start the scheme and has also warned that "scrapping the project would incur much wider felt consequences".

As well as creating much-needed jobs during the building work, around 50 permanent positions would be created on completion, it was claimed this week.

However, unease among councillors continues as was reported locally, since Coleraine Council's share of the nearly £5m overall price tag is now expected to still be about £2.7m.

Councillors are now considering the implications of the latest report that was discussed - behind closed doors - by the Leisure and Environment Committee last week.

(BMcC)