Petition calling for Buncrana leisure centre funding signed by more than 2,000 

More than 2,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the “immediate release” of government funding for a new leisure centre in Buncrana.

The petition was begun following a public meeting earlier this month which was called in the wake of the decision not to allocate funding following a €11.7m application to the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund.

Buncrana has been without a public swimming pool since 2015 when the leisure centre closed for renovations. 

It was recommended in 2018 that the building on Aileach Road be demolished and replaced with a new facility.

Planning approval for a two-storey building of almost 2,500 square metres and a 25-metre-long pool was granted in January.

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The funding application was to be supplemented with €5 million from Donegal County Council.

The petition, which was set up on November 15 and reached 1,000 signatures in the first 24 hours, is calling for “the immediate release of funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media so that construction can begin as soon as possible”.

“This is an amenity which every community should be entitled to enjoy, so we demand the same as those elsewhere in Ireland,” the petition says.

Local councillor Jack Muuray, who called the public meeting, set up the petition to “allow people to voice their frustration, and demonstrate the real necessity in Inishowen for this public amenity”.