Director Expects Market Yard In Neighbourhoods Plan

Pat Mulvenna, the council’s Director of Leisure and Development, has said she’d be surprised if Coleraine’s disused Market Yard wasn’t included in redevelopment plans under the Future Town scheme.

Established under the Conservative government’s Levelling Up agenda, the Town Fund provides each selected town with a £20 million endowment-style grant, paid in £2 million annual instalments over ten years. Under Keir Starmer’s Labour administration, it now operates as the ‘Plan for Neighbourhoods’.

At a recent meeting of the council’s Leisure and Development Committee, Deputy Mayor Tanya Stirling linked the Market Yard to the Town Fund. Ms Mulvenna explained that any regeneration projects using this funding would only be confirmed after a public consultation. She added, “Without pre-empting anything that comes out of that, I would be very surprised if the Market Yard wasn’t one of the proposals to come forward.”

Originally built in 1829 to move the thriving agricultural trade out of Coleraine’s town centre, the former livestock market remained a bustling hub for around 150 years before closing in the early 1980s. A 2012 proposal for a £4.5 million museum and library on the site was abandoned when a Lottery funding bid failed. Since then, councillors have explored other uses, from a pay-and-display car park to an outdoor events venue.