£4.5m VAT return a huge boost for Templemore Sports Complex redevelopment plans in Derry

During a Quarter 2 Financial Outturn Report, at a Governance and Strategic Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, November 5, Lead Finance Officer, Alfie Dallas, informed members that a leisure VAT claim with HMRC had been settled, leading to the repayment of over £4.53 million to council.

Mr Dallas said that, as agreed in Council’s Capital Strategy 2024/25, all receipts in respect of the back-dated element of the leisure VAT claim will be applied to the Council’s strategic leisure projects – which include the redevelopment Templemore – and the funds have therefore been transferred to Council’s Capital Fund. Council will have a further claim to submit in April 2025 for the current 2024/25 year.

Sinn Féin councillor Sandra Duffy said she was pleased to see the projects “moving in the right direction”.

“This is one of the best news stories I have read in a financial outturn paper in a while,” she said.

“I have huge ambitions around our strategic leisure, particularly around Templemore Sports Complex and the redevelopment there, and I have been talking about it for a long time.

“I was afraid that it actually wasn’t going to happen, but over the last while I have started to believe that it is actually going to happen.

“We’re seeing the financing of the [City of Derry] Airport and now this news from HMRC with over £4 million going into our strategic leisure pot.

“I feel quite excited about it, I feel very, very positive around our strategic leisure, and I look forward to seeing Templemore started.”

SDLP councillor Brian Tierney welcomed the news as he had been “talking about the Templemore Sports Complex for a long, long time”.

He concluded: “I didn’t stop talking about it, I knew it was always going to happen, and I’m happy we now have a funding strategy in place.”

“A huge ‘well done’ to our senior leadership team for sticking on task, making sure our cases were put forward to the appropriate people, and making sure that people heard exactly what this council needed to do to make this city and district thrive.”

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter