Anger as leisure centre plagued by dogging, drugs and dumping falls into disrepair

“The car park is used as a drugs den, and it was on a few dogging sites.”

Dogging, drugs and dumping are blighting a north Belfast leisure centre at the heart of a campaign for local services.

Craig Frampton, dad of boxing champ Carl, has already made an official complaint to Belfast City Council about its handling of Loughside Recreation Centre.

Now he’s planning to bring in the Northern Ireland Public Service Ombudsman, claiming the council is keeping local people in the dark about the future of the Shore Road centre.

Carl Frampton father Craig Frampton pictured at the Belfast Loughside Recreation Centre. Photo: PACEMAKER BELFAST

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Craig, who worked there for 34 years, says it was being run down before the pandemic hit in 2020 and never reopened after Covid.

But its car park has now become an eyesore, used for fly tipping, drug use, littered with needles and nitrous oxide canisters, and even dogging, where people engage in sexual activity for others to watch.

“The car park is used as a drugs den, and it was on a few dogging sites.

“Someone is fly-tipping in it now, and there is drug dealing and taking,” says Craig.

Flytipping at northside

“There are needles everywhere and packets of cocaine.

“It was turned into a garage with 12 cars in it at one stage. They were testing the brakes around the car park and doing engine changes.”

Only the toilets and changing facilities are now in use at the centre by local youth football team Loughside FC, after two pitches were upgraded.

A third pitch, which had been disused for over 30 years, was refurbished and is now used by Crusaders FC, but the rest of the building is closed to the public.

“Loughside boys team can use the changing rooms and toilets, but they’re only there at certain times.

“Crusaders could be there a 5pm this evening and there are no toilets for them,” says Craig.

The winding down of Loughside, once voted the best small leisure centre in Northern Ireland, limits the facilities available locally. The Grove Wellbeing Centre, also on the Shore Road, opened in 2008 but its hall hasn’t been fully open for several years because of a leaking roof. The council has previously said this causes ‘minimal disruption’.

Craig says local people were promised a new centre nearly 20 years ago to service the Shore Road, which stretches from near Belfast city centre to Newtownabbey.

But after the council failed to get planning permission there has been no consultation about the future of the current facility.

He’s previously challenged council figures for running the centre. In 2007 it was claimed the costs were £500,000 a year but in official figures from 2011 the actual cost was £132,000. A council target for membership for the centre was revealed in 2017 to be zero.

Belfast Loughside Recreation Centre on the Shore Road. Photo: PACEMAKER BELFAST

Craig says reports that the building is an asbestos risk are also grossly overstated, and claims the lift is out of order are incorrect.

“My objection is they are keeping the people in the dark,” he says.

“Up until 2007 there were meetings down there on a weekly basis, and it was going to be sold and Loughside relocated on the promise that a bigger centre was built.

“Then they couldn’t get planning permission so it was just close it, run it down and don’t run any events there.”

His comprehensive complaint to Belfast City Council included the consultation about the pitch refurbishment, when a small notice was placed on the fence on a Friday afternoon about a meeting the following Monday morning.

Craig’s complaint was not upheld, but he’s not throwing in the towel in his campaign for better leisure facilities.

“I’m just disappointed, especially in the officers and how they behave when it comes to Loughside. The councillors have been given duff information for years,” he says.

“My only other option now is to go to the ombudsman, and they can try to hold them to account about why there have been no meetings.

“I want the council to be honest, meet the public and be accountable.

“In the next week I’ll be putting a complaint into the ombudsman about their behaviour. I would like the council to live up to openness and transparency and meet the locals,” says Craig.

Belfast City Council says it’s had no reports of incidents in the Loughside car park.

It said a partnership agreement with Loughside FC allows it to use changing and toilet facilities in the centre, however the 2024 agreement with Crusaders FC doesn’t allow it access to the centre.

“As players and spectators from both clubs use the car park regularly, there are no plans to close or restrict access to it.

“There have been no fly-tipping or drug use incidents reported to the council.”

It said a £105 million Leisure Transformation Programme would provide seven new and upgraded leisure centres, and it’s developing ‘future options’ for facilities not in the programme, including Loughside.

“Any decisions on the future of these centres will be taken by elected members,” it said.

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