Maze decision time for Sports Minister

Northern Ireland Assembly members will cut short their summer break to hold a ‘special’ debate on the issue of the proposed sports stadium at the Maze.

Sports Minister Edwin Poots has shown his support to the proposed 35,000-seater stadium that will host soccer, Gaelic games and rugby and has also backed the location of the stadium.

The special meeting to be held by the Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure was confirmed before Assembly members broke for their summer recess, though some of Mr Poots’ DUP colleagues are against the idea of the £55 million arena on the site of the former Maze prison.

East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson and fellow DUP Assembly members Nelson McCausland and Jim Shannon have been critical of the project, siding with Northern Ireland football supporters who claim it would make more sense to locate a new soccer stadium in the heart of Belfast rather than the 365-acre Maze site outside the city.

Mr Poots has been invited to update the assembly members on the current position regarding the proposed stadium and Sinn Fein’s Barry McElduff, who will chair the Stormont debate, said the meeting was urgently needed.

The Culture, Arts and Leisure committee chair said: “When the committee met the minister in early June he indicated that alternatives to the proposed Maze/Long Kesh site must be submitted by the end of June 2007 and that he intended to make a decision shortly after that, we hope he will state clearly and unambiguously where the department stands on this issue and the timetable for the final decision.”

The Maze project also envisages an agricultural showground, an indoor arena, houses and cafes on the site.

Mr McElduff said he did not get the impression at this time the dream of a Maze stadium was becoming a lost cause.

Finance Minister Peter Robinson said he was “keeping an open mind” about the proposals to build the stadium at the Maze prison site.

(SB/SP)