Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland has announced a funding boost of just over £258,000 for St Joseph's Boy's High School, Newry.

The funding, which has been made available from DSD's Neighbourhood Renewal Investment Fund, will be used to refurbish the school's sports pitch providing a full sized facility. This will allow the school to enhance its physical education programme, enable it’s teams to play competitive matches at home for the first time and provide an additional local facility that can be accessed by the surrounding community.

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Minister McCausland said: "Sport develops and enriches communities and there are clear links between sporting activity and improved health and well being. The new playing pitch at St Joseph's will provide state of the art facilities for use by the school teams, its pupils and the surrounding community. It will help to create a strong sense of local community pride."

The Minister acknowledged the role of the Newry Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership, who identified the need for the project and the Southern Education and Library Board whose officials will manage the construction contract. He said: "Community involvement is a key component of Neighbourhood Renewal. This project is an excellent example of this in practice: local people, working with the relevant statutory organisations, have brought forward a project which will help address some of the key causes of disadvantage such as access to services and facilities."

(CD)