Colts hopeful for good news on Lough Moss development 

The development of a 4G pitch at Lough Moss has moved a step closer following a presentation by the Colts committee to Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.

The club was represented by chairman Eamon Deeny, director of football, Jake McKeown, welfare officer, Pat Neeson and committee member, Mark Hanvey, and highlighted how the lack of facilities at Lough Moss was hindering the growth of the club and was forcing it to look outside the borough in order to meet its training requirements.

In a statement after the presentation, the committee said: “We understand that a decision on plans for much needed top quality facilities at Lough Moss is to be made in the next month or two and we felt it was important that we forcefully underlined to the council that Carryduff is greatly under resourced compared to other parts of the council area and that our growing population deserved better.

“We told them that almost 90% of our spend on securing training facilities is going to other places and  if they provided us with floodlit 4G pitches the income they would receive from our club would ensure the new facility would be financially viable.

“The committee has undertaken a huge amount of work towards putting forward proposals for the development of Lough Moss in recent years and have built up strong support from our local MP, MLAs and councillors from all political parties, as well as council officers. The presentation was about ensuring that councillors from other areas were made aware of the need and we were delighted that others spoke up in support of the plan including Mayor Girvan, who had witnessed at first hand the great work we do at last May’s mini-football tournament.

“We have also been very strong in emphasising that we are pursuing facilities that can be used by other sporting organisations and the wider community, it is not just about the Colts, even though that is our priority. To that end, we are delighted that other clubs and organisations in the area, including the GAA and the Carryduff Regeneration Forum, have thrown their weight behind the Lough Moss development.

“And we don’t think it should stop at football facilities. We believe there is a real opportunity to turn Lough Moss into a community hub and have suggested facilities such as a cafe and meeting facilities and will support calls for a swimming pool in our area too.

“We believe the hard work and the good relations built up by the committee in the past couple of years are starting to pay off and we would be reasonably confident that good news could be coming our way in the very near future.”