By Iain Gray
A £9m revamp of Whitespots Country Park should be ready to receive visitors in November 2029, a senior local official has said.
Ards and North Down Council has been trying to rework the area around old lead mines in hills to the north of Newtownards for several years, only to hit repeated brick walls due to the cost of the project.
Last month the Department of Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) announced the project will get cash injections totalling £8.5m from two of its funding pots, allowing work on the regeneration project to get under way at last.
It’s just the first phase of a long-dreamed-of overhaul, however; during a discussion of the project last week, area councillors were quick to confirm that they’ll soon be going back to Stormont asking for more money to carry out the rest of the work.
During a meeting last Wednesday night, council community and wellbeing director, Graeme Bannister, set out a rough timeline for the revamp.
“We’re working on the planning application with a consultant,” he said, “with the intent to have that application in in two years’ time – there’s an actual date of July 23rd, 2026.
“We hope to procure a contractor shortly after that.
“We’ve got grant deadlines; if all goes according to plan and we spend the money accordingly, then phase one should be handed over to us, hopefully, in November 2029.
“So it’s still a long way off, and that’s only phase one, but the planning design that we’re doing at the moment is looking at the wider project as a whole, so hopefully we’ll be in a position to apply for funding for the other phases as we go along.”
The council is kicking in £820,000 on top of the £8.5m in DAERA grants, bringing the total cost of Whitespots phase one to £9.3m.
It will see upgraded paths and trails built on the site, along with a small visitor hub, a new car park and a playground.
Minor restoration work will be carried out to the country park’s mineshafts and windmill stump, while woodland will see ‘enhancement’ and the council is also thinking of building new routes for trial bikes.
Future phases, if they ever come off, are meant to include a viewing tower, the restoration of historic chimney stacks, an adventure playground, zip-wires, new woodland area and an elevated timber boardwalk.
During last Wednesday’s meeting, councillors were pleased to see the grant money but reinforced that much more is needed to carry out the full revamp of the country park.
DUP alderman Naomi Armstrong-Cotter said that the council would ‘welcome the cheque being signed as it is’ but called on the local authority to ‘keep pushing and pressing’ for more cash.
“It’s good news for the ongoing project at Whitespots,” she said, “but this is phase one; we’ve got much more to do and much more to achieve here.
“This will be a borough-wide attraction; it will be in borough-wide use, and hopefully will be a tourist attraction for further afield as well.
“I thank the [DAERA] Minister for signing the cheque, but we’ll be pushing for more as there’s more to be done.”
Pointing to several failed attempts to qualify for grant funding, UUP councillor Richard Smart said he was glad to see money finally come through for Whitespots.
And Alliance councillor Victoria Moore said that the country park could become ‘a really unique attraction’ due to the DAERA cash injection.
