Stadium plan dashed as special school set to expand

A football club's plan for a new stadium has been dashed after it emerged that land it had earmarked for development will now to be used to help a special needs school expand.

Strabane Athletic Football Club (SAFC) had hoped to build the stadium on land close to Knockavoe School in the County Tyrone town.

But the club's plan, first put forward in 2018, has been subject to a lengthy planning delay.

Now the Education Authority (EA), the body responsible for the day-to-day running of Northern Ireland's education system, has confirmed it has bought the site in Strabane.

The purchase of the land, the EA said, will "support the expansion of special educational needs (SEN) provision in the area".

Demand for SEN places, the EA said, "continues to grow significantly," adding the acquisition of the site represents "an important step in meeting that growing need in the north west".

In a statement, SAFC said as a club it "understands and supports the expansion to Knockavoe and special educational needs provision in the local area".

However, the club said it "was very disappointed by this decision considering the time and money invested by the club in the site".

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today on Thursday, chairman Seamus McElroy said the club was happy that Knockavoe School is getting its expansion but, at the same time, disappointed in terms of its own plans.

"We are very supportive of provision for special educational needs in the Strabane area, so it's kind of bittersweet because, while that has been resolved, it has obviously impacted on our ambitions as a football club," McElroy said.

"We had a number of options back when we first looked at proposed sites, so it is now just a case of going back to the drawing board and looking at it again.

McElroy said the club had spent in the region of £70,000 on the proposal in order to complete its planning application, which was passed by council in 2021 and required "lengthy reports and road surveys".

"No money had been spent on the actual land itself, but it is a lot of money and, given the number of problems that we were facing, it would have been easy just to say we could walk away. However, we tried to push it as far as we could, but we were too far in to step out.

McElroy said the case highlighted the need for greater investment in sporting provision in the north west.

Formed in 2010, SAFC has enjoyed success over a number of years and will play in the second tier of Northern Irish senior football for the first time next season.

The club submitted plans for the multi-sport stadium in 2018 with the application approved by Derry City and Strabane District Council in 2021.

In 2022 the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said it would make a final ruling on the application.

Last week SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan said the delay could not be justified and was "holding the club back".

At that time a DfI spokesperson told BBC News NI a decision on the plans was now "in its final stages and will be issued as soon as possible".