The Ulster Unionist Party’s Councillor for Balmoral, Jeffrey Dudgeon, has welcomed a Belfast City Council decision to ring-fence £250,000 for the first phase of a new community sports hub at Belvoir in South Belfast.

The funding from Belfast City Council’s Belfast Investment Fund was earmarked for the Castlereagh area which transferred into Belfast in 2015. It will be provided to a local partnership which involves the Belfast Battalion of the Boys Brigade, Linfield Football Club and Belvoir Football Club and bring about the much-needed modernisation of existing facilities and pitches.

Councillor Dudgeon, who was yesterday elected Chair of the Council’s South Belfast Area Working Group said: 

“This is a very positive development for the Belvoir area of South Belfast and enables an exciting project to get underway. The funding from Council will initiate Phase 1 of the project to provide a new grass pitch for Belvoir FC and also allow work to commence on the wider development of the 22 acre site as a community sports hub for the Boys Brigade and Linfield FC. 

"I have been very pleased to work with this partnership as the project gets off the ground and I look forward to seeing the plans develop in the months and years ahead.” 

Roy McGivern, Director of Linfield Football Club also welcomed the funding announcement. He stated: 

“We are delighted to get the first tranche of funding for this project which will provide a state of the art training base for the growing Linfield Academy and also put in place modern facilities for the local community in South Belfast. It is a very positive development for Linfield Football Club also for our partners in the Boys Brigade and Belvoir FC.”