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An Architect who is a member of the Newry City Park Stakeholder group and a long term campaigner for the 15 acre park at the Albert Basin has written to all Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Councillors to ask them to 'not miss an open goal' and apply for funding for the remainder of the park through the Shared Spaces funding (Reimagining community) of the Peace Plus Programme. A motion was put forward at the 8 August full council meeting asking for council to apply for PeacePlus funding but it wasn't allowed to be debated at that meeting and instead was deferred to a meeting in mid September - after the closing date of the funding stream!
€75m is available in this PeacePlus call but applications must be received no later than 5pm on Thursday 7th September 2023.
James McConville created the visuals that raised the ambition for a world class city park for Newry.
The Letter
I am now a member of the City Park Stakeholder Group and I am pleased to see that progress is occurring, albeit slowly, towards getting Newry City the City Park it so rightfully deserves.
I am writing to you all to please ask you to not to miss an open goal and please apply for the Shared Spaces Funding Pot when it comes to additional funding to get Newry City Park it so rightfully deserves. The deadline is next Thursday 7th September. I had assumed that the council would have been applying for this but was shocked to learn that an application would not be made for the project.
We currently have £16.2m on the table. This is great but it is quickly being whittled away in a high inflationary environment as we move forward with the project.
Furthermore as a member of the City Park Stakeholder Group we have also been told that budget limitations of the £16.2m means that we need to split the park into phases.
This means that Newry City Park Phase 1 DOES NOT CONTAIN:
- a New Pedestrian Bridge linking the new city park to Kilmorey Street
- an Openable Pedestrian Bridge linking the new city park to the Quays and Drumalane
- a new marina connecting the park to its historic canal waterways
- any marina support building or services (changing rooms,etc)
- no dedicated support officer for the legacy of the park similar to that Eastside Partnership/Connswater Greenway
Good news is the money is on the table for this through the Shared Space Funding New Peace Plus Programme. Our new city park has so many synergies with the ongoing Newry City Deal projects, the new cross border Dundalk-Newry Greenway, the Narrow Water Bridge. The Newry City Park Project is an incredibly safe project to fund through Peace Plus.
My ask is very simple. We have 5 working days. Get the entire current Council City Park Team mobilised for 5 days to deliver the best funding application for this! There are literally many millions of reasons to do this! Newry deserves a World Class Park and this is our way to achieve this. I work day in and day out with funding applications and I would donate my time over the new week to support my council with this if required.
Council have stated that the park project is going to cost over £30m and that the current £16.2m funding and approximately £2m promised from council will only pay for phase one of the project.
