Lough Moss 3G – Club Statement

 Carryduff Colts is delighted to announce that we have secured significant usage of the new 3G pitch that you will have seen sprouting up at Lough Moss during the course of the past year.

Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council has determined that the Club will be the primary user, following a lengthy and thorough assessment process in which a considerable number of other clubs and sporting organisations expressed an interest and applied for slots at the £1.7 million new development, which is due to be completed at the beginning of November.

The announcement comes at the end of a long campaign that has been led by the Colts Committee over many years – firstly to get the Council to invest and build a 3G pitch at Lough Moss and secondly to ensure that the Carryduff community through its two main sporting clubs – Carryduff Colts and Carryduff GAC – got priority for bookings once it was built.

Club Chairman Eamon Deeny said: “We have been making the case for the 21 years of this club’s existence that Carryduff is a deprived area when it comes to facilities to support a growing population – and until the new Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council was created in 2015 our pleas were falling on deaf ears.

“Most of our members have no idea of the time and effort that our committee members, past and present, have put in to securing this development. And I want to pay particular tribute to Michael Murray, Jake McKeown and Mark Hanvey who have worked tirelessly, especially in recent months, to get us to this point. Without their dedication, expertise and initiative we would not have got to where we are today.

“It is also important to thank the Council officers who have been supportive of us in recent years and our local councillors, from all parties, who recognised our ambition and supported and championed our club throughout this process.

“We have lobbied the Council, its elected representatives as well as a range of MPs and MLAs who have represented this area over a number of years, and it is a joy that we are finally at this exciting stage.

“The turning point was a presentation we made to the council, along with Carryduff GAC around five years ago, when we highlighted the amount of money our club was spending on hiring training facilities not just outside our locality but outside the council area – money that could help ensure a new 3G development could nearly pay for itself with our contribution.

“There has been serious negotiating and endless behind the scenes work going on in recent years, culminating in recent months, to ensure that we secured the time slots at this magnificent new development that met our current needs as much as possible. Establishing Lough Moss 3G as our primary venue for training and a selection of matches reinforces our position in the community and underpins our future growth to serve the rapidly increasing Carryduff population.”

We look forward to seeing all our members at the new facilities in the very near future!