Derry City and Strabane District Council has opened a new market-engagement exercise for the proposed Strabane Leisure Centre and associated road realignment, with supplier responses due by noon on 20 November 2026. The notice, published at 9:52am on 30 October, says the council wants to shape an affordable, deliverable scheme and achieve a contract award by June 2027.

The move comes as a full planning application for the Canal Basin development remains open for consultation. The official register records receipt on 16 October, validation on 21 October and no planning decision at the time of this check. This is progress through procurement preparation and planning, rather than confirmation that a construction contract has been awarded.

For residents, the proposal would replace Riversdale Leisure Centre with a broader range of swimming, fitness and community facilities in the town centre. For potential contractors, today’s notice creates a specific opportunity to inform the eventual procurement. Neither process supplies a confirmed opening date for the public.

What the council published today

The original Find a Tender notice, reference T26-142CAP PME, covers a design-and-construct project for Strabane Leisure Centre and road realignment. It is explicitly a preliminary market engagement notice. The council intends to gather information from potential suppliers before launching a full competition.

The first stage uses a questionnaire. The notice directs completed responses through the eTendersNI portal’s CfT messaging facility, with a deadline of 12:00 on 20 November. Suppliers can respond earlier. Businesses should use the official procurement route and its documents for the detailed requirements, rather than treat a news report as the application instructions.

The council says information gathered at this stage will inform internal planning and any subsequent procurement process. It also states that taking part, or choosing not to take part, will not prevent a provider from competing later. Responses are not to be appraised in a future tender evaluation. Those distinctions matter to smaller firms deciding whether to engage now: this exercise gathers market knowledge; it does not select the winning contractor.

Planning has its own timetable

The Northern Ireland Planning Register entry identifies the full application as **LA11/2026/0767/F**. Its site description includes the Canal Basin North Car Park, the former DfI Roads Strabane Section Office at Elmview, 6 Derry Road, Canal Link and part of the Dock Street car park.

At the recorded source check on 30 October, the application’s status was “Consultation Open”. A decision and committee date were not available. Its history records the consultation status changing on 22 October. The application was therefore already in the system before yesterday’s local reporting and today’s procurement notice; it should not be described as having been lodged this morning.

The register includes the proposal description, documents and consultation information. A resident who wants to understand how access, drainage, noise or the building layout may affect a particular location should examine that file, rather than rely only on a visual impression of the scheme. The public document list includes material on drainage, noise, odour and construction environmental management; their presence is not a finding that any particular impact has been resolved.

What is proposed inside the centre

The application describes a 25-metre swimming pool, training pool and leisure water area with a viewing gallery. It also includes a wellness spa and health suite, fitness suite, spin and yoga studios, multi-purpose studios, a squash court, café and changing facilities, including Changing Places provision.

The council’s current leisure-project page gives additional detail about the intended facility mix: an eight-lane main pool, a 120-station fitness suite, three multi-purpose studios, a community and meeting room, and accessible changing and toilet facilities. These are proposed facilities, not services already available to book.

Different spaces would serve different activities. A teaching pool and leisure water zone are relevant to families and learners, while a main pool and dry-side facilities serve other training and recreation needs. The presence of those spaces in a proposal does not establish the eventual lesson timetable, club allocations, admission prices or opening hours. Those operating arrangements would need separate confirmation closer to delivery.

Why the pool design changed

The council’s 30 January project update explains that the main pool grew from an earlier six-lane concept to eight lanes. It attributed the revision, along with dedicated squash provision, to needs raised by groups including Riversdale Otters Swimming Club and Ulster Squash.

That update said more than 700 people participated in a 2024 consultation and that 70% expressed high positivity towards the proposals. These are council-reported consultation figures, not a new survey of the town. They explain part of the design history without establishing that every aspect of the current application has universal support.

The January statement also described a split-level entrance and a pursuit of Passivhaus accreditation. The latter is an intended environmental standard. It should not be read as certification already achieved or as measured energy savings from an operating centre.

Roads, parking and pedestrian access are part of the application

The proposal extends beyond the leisure building. It includes realigning Canal Link, altering the existing road network, footways and pedestrian crossings, and reconfiguring parking. The application description specifies 46 car parking spaces, including accessible and electric-vehicle charging spaces, plus drop-off and loading areas.

Landscaping, drainage infrastructure, clearance and associated site works are also included. These elements matter because a centre’s usefulness depends partly on the route to its entrance, the relationship between pedestrians and vehicles, and how neighbouring land is arranged. Residents can use the application drawings to assess the proposal at street level, including the connections they would actually use.

The 46-space figure describes the parking proposed in this application. It should not be assumed to be the total parking capacity of every Canal Basin regeneration project, or a count of spaces currently available in the town. Equally, a road realignment in a planning description is not an instruction that an existing street has closed. Any eventual construction traffic arrangements would require their own current information.

Why the financial figures differ

Today’s procurement notice lists an estimated value of **£29 million including VAT**. The council’s January update assessed the overall leisure-project capital budget at approximately **£42 million**. The wider Canal Basin regeneration programme was described as approximately **£115 million**.

These statements concern different described scopes: an estimated procurement value, the leisure project’s assessed capital budget and the broader regeneration package. The records checked do not provide a reconciliation of every cost component between them. It would therefore be misleading to present the difference between £29 million and £42 million as an established saving, a funding shortfall or a price reduction.

All figures here are in pounds sterling because this is a Northern Ireland council project. They are not euro allocations. The £29 million is also an estimate, not a signed contract price. A later tender or award notice, together with updated council budget reporting, should provide firmer information about the eventual contract and its relationship to the total project cost.

How it fits the Canal Basin plans

The council’s May public-information announcement placed the leisure centre within a wider regeneration programme involving a health hub, a North West Regional College campus and a pedestrian bridge. It named the council, Western Health and Social Care Trust, college and Department for Infrastructure as partners.

The intended relationship between leisure, health, education and active travel is important to the choice of a central site. However, progress on this leisure procurement does not establish that every partner project has the same approval, contract or completion timetable. Readers should distinguish the centre’s own application and procurement references from announcements about the whole programme.

The May engagement event at Strabane Library and its online feedback period were earlier steps. That online period ended on 25 June. It is not the current route for commenting on the full planning application. The current planning file is the relevant place to check the scheme now before the council.

How residents can follow or comment

Search the Planning Register using **LA11/2026/0767/F**, then check the current documents and dates before submitting observations. The file checked for this article showed a neighbour-consultation expiry of 5 November. It also displayed advertisement-related dates later in November, including a future advertisement date of 5 November. Those fields should not be treated as proof that the advertisement had already appeared on 30 October.

The Department for Infrastructure’s portal guidance explains how to search, track and comment on applications. Registration is required to comment or track progress. It also warns that a commenter’s name, postal address and comment are published online. Readers should review that explanation before using the official service; The Press does not collect planning submissions.

For difficulties viewing the file or clarification of the applicable response period, the council’s planning information page provides the planning-office route, including 028 7125 3253. Questions about procurement belong through the notice’s procurement process, rather than as planning comments.

The next milestones to watch

The procurement notice estimates contract dates from 1 June 2027 to 3 June 2030 and states an ambition to award by June 2027. The January council update had targeted opening in the 2029/30 financial year, subject to statutory approvals. These are programme estimates from separate dated statements, not a guaranteed opening appointment.

The meaningful next steps are a planning determination, a full procurement competition and a recorded contract award, followed by a confirmed delivery programme. Until those emerge, today’s development is concrete but limited: the council is asking the construction market how to deliver the leisure centre and road works while the planning application remains under consultation.