'It's no longer fit for purpose' - New £800,000 building planned to replace existing community centre in Derry

PLANS have been lodged for a new £800,000 building replace an existing community centre in Derry.

The application will see the current Rosemount Resource Centre (RRC), pictured above, demolished and replaced by a new two storey community building.

The building, which was built almost two decades ago, houses a number of advice services as well as a creche and a community greenhouse and garden.

However, speaking to the Derry News earlier this week, the manager of the centre, Tommy McCourt, said that the building is ‘no longer fit for purpose’ . “This is something we’ve been looking at for some time now, as not only is the building well past its sell-by date, but we’re also running out of space in there,” he said.

“The new building will be L-shaped and allow us to have a modern community facility to provide the services we offer to the best of our abilities.”

Mr McCourt added that despite have encountered some difficulties with funding in the past, he was confident that the £800,000 had now ‘ring-fenced’ by the Department for Communities (DfC). “We had made an application to a number of years to a funding body, and we didn’t event receive a reply,” Mr McCourt added.

“It was then taken on by the Department for Social Development (DSD), which has now become the Department for Communities (DfC), and that money has now been ring-fenced.

“The planning application has now been lodged, and hopefully we’ll then be able to get on with the demolition, followed by the newbuild.”

The application is currently being considered by the local planning authority, Derry City and Strabane District Council, and is expected to come before a meeting of its Planning Committee in the near future.