Senior council officers have said that there is no guarantee that over £9 million in PEACEPLUS funding earmarked for the now-cancelled Magee sports dome will be reinvested within the district.

Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Director of Business and Culture Stephen Gillespie told elected members that in his experience, any money released in the wake of a cancelled project was put into a “broader pot”.

The 15,000 square metres indoor dome sports arena was planned as part of Ulster University’s (UU) Magee campus on Northland Road and was to be funded, as part of a PEACEPLUS partnership, with a £9.4 million/€10.86 million contribution from the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) and £8.37 million in match funding from UU.

However, in early August UU representatives announced that the project had been cancelled due to ongoing construction inflation and unsustainable running cost projections.

The air dome project was scrapped in August this year.

placeholder image — The air dome project was scrapped in August this year.

The cancellation has led to concerns from Foyle SDLP MLA Sinéad McLaughlin and other political figures around the planned expansion of the university.

During September’s Business and Culture Committee meeting, SDLP councillor Rory Farrell said he was worried that the SEUPB funding was now “in the ether” and asked if there has been any correspondence between council and SEUPB, about keeping the €11 million (£9.44m) of “vital investment” in the North West.

Colr. Farrell said: “We don't know where it's going, we don't know if it's earmarked, if it's going to be kept here in the North West. We don't know if it's going to be handed back to Europe, if it's going to be spread across the North. Has there been any communication from our council, to make representations about that funding remaining in Derry and Strabane?”

Head of Business, Kevin O’Connor, said all local councils have been engaging with SEUPB about projected underspend across the entire PEACEPLUS programme, to identify strategic projects which would potentially use any underspend, but he couldn’t “speak to the issue specifically around the dome”.

In response, councillor Farrell proposed writing to SEUPB and asking if they “have a position on keeping that money in our council area”.

“Because it was for a key strategic project that has sadly fallen through, we can do with that investment, and I know there were council projects that we didn't get funded as well,” he added.

Director of Business and Culture, Stephen Gillespie, said he would check that council’s Chief Executive had not received any correspondence before contacting SEUPB.

“My experience is it probably will go into a much broader pot,” Mr Gillespie said. “ But certainly we can check to see if we have any specific correspondence.

The 15,000 square metres indoor dome sports arena was planned as part of Ulster University’s (UU) Magee campus on Northland Road.

“If not we can write them to see what is their proposals with it and come back to elected members with them.”

The dome was to be a first-of-its-scale facility for Northern Ireland and Ulster University back in November 2024 sdaid it would “transform the old Foyle College site in the city into a shared sporting space equipped with full-size pitches suitable for soccer, Gaelic games and rugby as well as other sports, community and musical events”.