Motorsport track coming to Coalisland

by Gráinne Connolly

Planning permission has been granted by Mid Ulster District Council for an international motorsport track in Coalisland. 

The council's planning committee met last week and agreed on the application being called 'Lake Torrent', which is a 57 acre site, formely known as the 'clay pits'. 

Lake Torrent is to become a venue for regional, national and international competitions, aiming to host events like the World Super Bike Championships and British Touring Car Championships. 

It's also earmarked to attract up to 30,000 spectators. 

The new track has been welcomed to the area by Mid Ulster MP, Francie Molloy. 

He says the investment will bring a lot to the area: 

"It's a big investment for Coalisland but not just Coalisland, for the surrounding hinterland, Dungannon, Cookstown, Armagh. 

"You're talking along the lines of a race meeting where you'll probably have 20 to 30,000 people coming in, so it creates all sorts of opportunities for people needing somewhere to stay and eat and all that goes with that." 

The MP went on to say that David Henderson, the man behind the track has also plans to build a hotel on the site. 

"This will create new jobs for local people, and to have a hotel in Coalisland would put it on the map and that creates great opportunities for young people."

When speaking about David Henderson, who's idea was to bring the track to the 'clay pit' he said:

"His main purpose all along has been to create a safe site for motorcycle racing, to get it off the public roads. 

"Every time we see race track meetings unfortunately we see death and what he wanted was a safe track where people could take part in motor cycle racing safely."

The team at Lake Torrent has taken to twitter to announce the news:

Brilliant news. We are so proud of the team and looking forward to delivering this amazing project for NI. https://t.co/MjoaAjD8jH

— Lake Torrent (@LakeTorrent) September 5, 2017

According to Francie Molloy, construction is due to commence at the end of this month, however an exact timeline as to how and when the work will be completed is not known at the moment.