From Anthony Feeney

George Carleton, Alan Tees, Pete Cooper and myself met with Paul Dunlop last night to get an update on the status of the proposed new Derry climbing wall.

This time last year Derry City Council had plans to knock down the St Columb's Park building and build a new one on the old heli pad in Ebrington Barracks. This new building was supposed to be a Centre of Excellence for judo, with an eye on the 2012 Olympics in London, hoping to attract international teams to Derry in the preceding years. The climbing wall and facilities for other sports were to be an afterthought and Paul and Dawson Stelfox have worked to reverse this opinion that climbing is a minority sport.

Paul has managed to resurrect an MCI strategy that indicates that Derry should be a regional climbing centre and thus have a regional standard of wall. Paul, Dawson and Angela Carlin have drawn up a guide as to what this wall should contain, to include bouldering, top-roping and leading sections and be, at a minimum, 15m high by 20m wide. Regional would include Derry, Donegal and basically anywhere with an hour or so's drive from Derry. In addition to this the MCI have agreed to apply for a grant that could be up to £300K to help fund this new wall.

To get to the point, the Olympic judo bid for Derry has failed and with climbing having strong backing from it's national body (MCI) and a clear regional strategy we are in a much better position than last year. The latest proposal from Derry City Council had 2 phases:

• Phase One: Build a new Centre of Excellence on the old heli-pad, specifically for the sports of judo, wrestling, fencing, gymnastics and climbing, and to include a free weights area. Hand over the equipping and running of the building to a trust, to include representatives from each sport, on a 20 year lease.
• Phase Two: Knock down St Columb's Park and rebuild a new centre to include a climbing wall.

It seems Phase One would be the best option for us for a number of reasons:

1. There is no clear date as to when St Columb's Park is going to be knocked down. Phase One is likely to start much sooner.
2. With the MCI backing and possible funding we now have more clout than the other sports involved.
3. The MCI have experience, e.g. at Tullymore through MCI Climbing Walls Ltd, of running similar facilities via a trust.
4. Other sports interested in Phase One (judo and wrestling) have specifically mentioned that a climbing wall is an excellent way to train for their sports.
5. We also feel that these other sports are complimentary to climbing. These sports could also use the centre at the same time as climbers without getting in each other's way.

To this end we have drafted a letter to Ben Corr at Derry City Council.