The seaside town of Bangor was today named as the preferred location for the construction of Northern Ireland's first ever Olympic sized swimming pool.
North Down Borough Council's bid to have the 50 metre pool built in Bangor by 2010 — two years before the London Olympic Games — got a major boost with the announcement from Stormont Culture Minister Edwin Poots.
The council is planning a new £35 million leisure and watersports centre at Valentine's Playing Fields featuring the 10 lane swimming pool, a five metre diving pool, facilities for water polo, diving and synchronised swimming clubs and spectator seating for 1,500 people.
It also envisaged the centre would be used about top class watersports athletes not just from Northern Ireland but from around the world for training in the build-up to the 2012 Games.
The complex would be fully adaptable for paralympic competitors and would serve as the headquarters for Swim Ulster.
Mr Poots said North Down Council's bid was approved by Sport Northern Ireland after rigorous examination in a open competition. "This represents a significant milestone in the delivery of the Elite Facilities Programme and we should ensure that the 50 metre pool is in operation by 2010," the Democratic Unionist minister said.
PA