Construction on a multi-million sports and leisure centre for Knocknacarra is set to begin in early 2009.

The announcement was made at a Galway City Council meeting on Monday night and was met with a mixed reaction by local councillors, who have raised concerns over the viability of the plans and the public private partnership method by which it is to be built.

A detailed presentation was given at the meeting by Vincent Traynor of James Smyths Architects outlining the new centre, which will be located on a site opposite the Millar Lane pitches and adjacent to the Knocknacarra Town Centre. A blueprint of the proposed development was placed on the table and City Manager Joe MacGrath also outlined an estimated timeline in relation to the centre.

"The initial phase associated with the planning aspect of the development will take the remainder of this year - 2008, after this a detailed project management plan will have to be developed which will address the detailed design of the building, funding and other issues that will arise, following approval of this, it would be envisaged to commence constriction in early 2009."

The city manager stated that the proposal is both ambitious and expensive and he indicated that he would be consulting with the area councillors in relation to the proposed development.

The new centre will contain a large sports hall, meeting rooms, gymnasium, sauna, steam room, offices, swimming pool, seven meeting rooms, dressing rooms for the centre and dressing rooms for the nearby pitches. A private company will build the whole centre with Galway City Council then purchasing the community element of the centre, which will include the sports hall, meeting rooms and dressing rooms.

Speaking to the Galway Independent, Cllr John Mulholland said that although he would like nothing more than to see work on the centre underway by 2009, he was sceptical that this could be achieved.