Sports Campus plans progressing
LATEST Tender documents for design to issue 'within weeks'
Cavan County Council, in conjunction with its project partners, are preparing to issue tender documents for the detailed design phase of a new proposed multi-million euro sports campus in Cavan Town.
It’s understood those documents will be issued “within weeks” once finer details are ironed out.
The move would see the trio of organisations back the appointment of a team of consultant engineers to begin sizing up how best to progress and successfully deliver this ambitious infrastructural plan for the county.
This time last year almost €840,000 was jointly allocated to Cavan County Council and the Cavan County GAA Board towards the new state-of-the-art multi sports facility.
The project was one of only seven major sports projects nationally to be granted funding under the new Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund (LSSIF).
It is set to be developed on a phased basis in conjunction with plans by Cavan GAA to develop a centre of excellence at Kingspan Breffni Park and the neighbouring Royal School’s own plans to enhance their sporting facilities. It's estimated the sports campus plan could cost as much as €30 million once finally delivered.
Cavan County Council last year purchased a tranche of land to the rear of Kingspan Breffni from the County Board. This was reflected in the County Board’s own recently published end of year accounts.
Similar in scale to the hugely successful Erne East Peace Link facility in Clones, the Cavan multi-sports facility will include 4G pitches for Gaelic football, soccer and rugby, playing areas for basketball and hockey, and facilities for badminton, tennis, as well as athletics.
There are also plans to build a competitive-sized swimming pool on site at a later stage.
Director of Services at Cavan County Council, Brendan Jennings, says the aim is to design now and build the centre in phases in the future.
“Detailed design will naturally bring about change, but we still want to build a facility of scale. We still want to build an indoor arena for athletics, we still want the sports halls, the swimming pool. We still want to build the 400 track with soccer pitch, the 4G pitch, as well as car parking and access roads.”
He adds that all three partner organisations are togging out in the same jersey colours aiming for what is best for the county.
“We want to make the best and efficient use of all lands that are available. There are definite synergies there and we are all working together on this. It’s the county jersey we’re all wearing here, and that’s not just in the GAA context.”