A COMMUNITY-LED consultation on the potential redevelopment of the Whiterock Leisure Centre and local Health Centre has been launched online.
Upper Springfield Whiterock Integrated Partnership (USWIP) is asking residents for their opinions with a view to securing a new health, leisure and wellbeing centre.
The online survey asks questions around the current provision of health and wellbeing facilities in a bid to to ensure the creation of a new leisure centre and space for local medical services.
While the conversation is at an early stage, it is envisaged that the new centre will replace the existing Whiterock Leisure Centre and the Belfast Trust-owned Whiterock Health Centre.
USWIP Development Coordinator Michael Donnelly, said the survey is part of an area-wide consultation aimed at addressing health inequalities in the area.
“Whiterock Ward 2 suffers from the worst health inequalities in the North,” he explained.
“We appointed a consultant a while back, Colm Bradley from Community Places, who did an extensive piece of work in relation to service provision in the area and identifying the gaps. The fact that this area doesn’t have a GP is a major issue. This area doesn’t have a dentist. There are a lack of services that cause a lot of health inequalities.
“We’ve been lobbying for a number of years and we need a fit-for-purpose health, leisure and wellbeing centre in this area. You have Whiterock Leisure Centre that was built in the early '80s, and you have a health centre that is disconnected from the community and doesn’t get used as much as it should be.
“We took a community, bottom-up approach where we can get people’s thoughts on what they would like to see in a new leisure centre in the future. It’s about the community shaping it, and we want a cradle to the grave approach where it’s not just the current users using the facilities. We want our young people using and we want our older people using it because we have an ageing population and we want them to have the best of life and improve their health and wellbeing.”
Under its Leisure Transformation Programme, Belfast City Council has redeveloped several leisure centres across the city including the recently completed Andersonstown and Brook Leisure Centres. However, Whiterock is one of five centres not included in the existing redevelopment phases. Instead, the centre is part of a feasibility study which will look at its future options.
Mr Donnelly said that any plans to overhaul the leisure centre should be “shaped by the community”.
“We are already meeting with senior council officials and officials from the Health Trust,” he said.
“We have a working group established, so we want this to be a co-designed model looking at health, leisure and wellbeing.”
To have your say on the consultation, click here.
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