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End to Plans for Leswalt Retreat

PLANS for a million pound educational retreat in the North Rhins have collapsed because of a funding shortage.

The Aldouran Glen Village charity will wind up later this year without realising its dream of creating a residential retreat on the outskirts of Leswalt.

Pioneers behind the project say they are "deeply distressed and disappointed" to miss out on the major funding they hoped would bring their brainchild to fruition.

They had planned to create a flagship educational village predominantly for special needs children and local schools severely lacking in the area. It would have used gardens, music, wildlife and nature as a therapeutic educational tool for young users.

In the long-run the charity planned to create a village to house school or community groups at a cost of millions of pounds which they hoped to source from the Lottery and other national funding bodies such as Children in Need and the Hedley Trust.

They even suggested the facility would create up to 15 part-time teaching positions. In total they estimated their blueprint would cost in the region of £1.2 million.

But despite raising more than £140,000 to get the plan off the ground they failed to attract the major funding to press ahead.