Minister Dempsey opens local 'leisure facility of real quality"

Trim"s new €14m Sports and Leisure Centre was officially opened by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey last Friday. The centre, which is operated by Aura, includes a 25-metre swimming pool, a learners" pool and kiddies" pool, fitness gym, a large sports hall suitable for all indoor games, sauna and steam rooms, outdoor playing pitches and an outdoor bowling green. The centre was built by Meath County Council and partly funded by the Departments of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Arts, Sports and Tourism. Work on the project began in June 2007 and was completed at the end of September 2008. Construction firm P Elliott & Company from Cavan was the main contractor and Conor Kelly of Simon J Kelly and Associates, Architects, designed the centre. There is parking for over 100 cars and the entire centre is designed to meet modern standards for access by people with disabilities. Speaking at the opening, Meath County Manager Tom Dowling described the new facility as a 'centre for young and old, a resource that will serve the entire community for many years to come and a credit to everyone associated with planning designing and building it'. Mr Dempsey said that he was particularly happy for the people of Trim that they now have a sports and leisure facility of real quality located right on their doorstep. The 3.5 acre site was secured by the council as part of an overall agreement with Trim GAA Club which has also constructed a major new sports facility adjacent to the new leisure centre. The centre replaces the old Trim swimming pool that was constructed in the early 1970s and served the town of Trim for over 35 years. Speaking at the opening, Meath County Council cathaoirleach Cllr Liz McCormack said: 'My children learned to swim in the old pool in Trim, as did thousands of others. I"m sure that many thousands more will learn to swim here and will enjoy these fantastic new facilities.' Kevin Stewart, Trim Town and Area Manager, added: 'This is a fantastic example of the great work that can be achieved by the public service in providing facilities for their communities. We have appointed a very experienced management company to run the centre on our behalf and I know that, in the short time since it opened to the public, the feedback has been very positive and already hundreds of people have joined and use the centre on a daily basis.' Since opening two months ago, 800 members have joined Aura Trim and many more are using the facilities on a 'pay as you go' basis. Operations manager Adrian Harrison said: 'We have provided 34 new jobs in the region and individuals and families have been telling us that having a facility like this in the town has made a big improvement to their social and sporting lives.' He said that over 800 local children are currently taking part in Aura Swim Academy, where they are learning to swim and to improve their swimming skills in a fun and fully-supervised 10-week course. The official opening ceremony coincided with a successful fundraising campaign for Special Olympics Ireland. Aura was one of 24 companies in Ireland which organised a day-long fundraising campaign on Friday in an effort to help Special Olympics Ireland raise €1 million in one day. 'Friday was the perfect demonstration of how Aura Trim has already become an important part of the local community. Hundreds of workers, parents and families took time out of their day to contribute to the fundraising campaign by either taking part in one of the activities, or sponsoring some of the participants,' said Mr Harrison. He said the highlight was a fundraising six-a-side soccer tournament on the two all-weather pitches, featuring three Garda teams, the local fire brigade and four soccer clubs from the area.