{"id":569689,"date":"2025-11-14T11:06:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T11:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/569689\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T11:06:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T11:06:20","slug":"ni-sports-centre-like-third-world-without-heating-or-hot-water-in-boiler-replacement-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/569689\/","title":{"rendered":"NI sports centre like \u2018third world\u2019 without heating or hot water in boiler replacement row"},"content":{"rendered":"

Councillor Joe Boyle, who represents the Ards Peninsula at Ards and North Down Borough Council<\/a>, told fellow elected representatives this week the facility had gone \u201cthird world,\u201d with not only no heating or hot water facilities for staff and visitors, meaning no showers, but it was also without a functioning main sports hall for the last three years.<\/p>\n

At the November meeting of the council\u2019s Active and Healthy Communities Committee on Wednesday, November 13, in Newtownards, elected representatives received an update from council officials on the beleaguered leisure centre, at Cloughey Road, Portaferry.<\/p>\n

The centre is run by Ards and North Down Council in a joint arrangement with the nearby St Columba\u2019s College secondary school.<\/p>\n

The council is insisting responsibility for replacing the boiler is down to the Education Authority. The Education Authority insists it is not.<\/p>\n

A report for the council committee states: \u201cThere has been no further progress in relation to the sports hall floor since the last update in September 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn September 2025 the Headmaster of the school reported that the boiler for the Sports Centre had broken down, was unrepairable and needed to be replaced. Quotes for replacement are circa \u00a330,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe replacement of the boiler is a matter for the school and Education Authority to resolve, not the council. Council officers are concerned that as the weather starts to get colder, officers may receive complaints from users and staff about temperatures within the centre, and bemoaning the lack of hot running water including showers.”<\/p>\n

SDLP Councillor Joe Boyle told the chamber at the committee meeting: \u201cWe are dealing with a nightmare here in Portaferry at the minute. It\u2019s been three months now with no heating system. The weather has been quite kind to us, in that it has been mild enough, but the Education Authority, and the (Stormont) Department of Education have been an absolute disaster, and the minister\u2019s responses haven\u2019t been a whole lot better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is a shame and disgrace the way that centre is being treated. For three and a half years one sporting club on its own would have put nearly \u00a315,000 into that centre, so we have lost that. They talk about \u00a330,000 for a heating system. But nobody seems to want to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAre people telling me if St Columba\u2019s College was located in the centre of Newtownards or Bangor, and Portaferry Sports Centre was situated in Newtownards or Bangor, that it would be three and a half years before the Education Authority or Department of Education would do anything? I think not. I think being geographically isolated means out-of-sight-out-of-mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhat we are dealing with here is like something in the third world, a couple of wee heaters for staff in the corridor, and they sit together in case it gets cold. Not everybody who does a workout wants a freezing cold shower. There is no hot water in hand basins, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe officers in both the Education Authority and the Department of Education are quite complimentary, and say if it was up to them, they would do it. Well, I\u2019m sorry, but who is it up to? I\u2019ve had a couple of responses from the minister, pretty useless responses to be quite honest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EA says they are responsible for maintaining the boiler, but not replacing it. What sort of an arrangement is that? So they come out and fix it, but they don\u2019t replace it? Something is going on, and it is not good, and there are communities who are not too happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A council officer said at the meeting: \u201cWe share your frustrations, and we are certainly looking after the staff. The responsibility sits with the Education Authority, we are very clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur director has just written to the Education Authority, and has asked for a response in the next five working days, because we are very concerned as we get deeper into the depths of Winter the impact it will have on our operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThere is no hot water. We do have kettles, but no hot water in showers, basins or taps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Portaferry<\/p>\n

Portaferry Sports Centre. Picture: Google Maps<\/p>\n

The story behind Belfast’s ‘Alec the Goose’ tribute outside St George’s Market in Belfast<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe are asking for a decision from the Education Authority, because we ourselves are getting very close to having to make a decision as to whether we can continue to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The officer said the council was taking ambient room temperatures every two hours to see if the facility was consistently falling below the legal 13 degree celsius level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Councillor Joe Boyle, who represents the Ards Peninsula at Ards and North Down Borough Council, told fellow elected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[5824,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-569689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-ards-and-north-down-borough-council","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115547733746783377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}