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Despite many of our political figures indicating over months and years that Newry, Mourne and Down District Council and Councillors have been proactively searching for funding to build a 15 Acre Park at the Albert Basin in Newry it has been revealed that as of 16 May 2022 just one application was actually made, in the four and a half years since the Council agreed unanimously to build the park in the city!
Newry.ie submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Council and in reply to a request for a list of funding applications made since November 2017 (when the park was agreed) they stated "A number of funding streams have been considered by Council" and then admitted that only one "progressed to application"
The one application that was made was to the Belfast Region City Deal Complementary Fund in September 2021, almost four years after council agreed to build the park, saw £16.2M granted from the Department of Finance/ Department for Communities although this still amounts to just half of what the Council say it will take to build the facility.
Council have said that the park will cost over £30M to build and 6 years to build but yet have not applied to other funding streams to make up the total, while to date they have committed just £170,000 of Council funding to the project, a tiny 0.5% of their total estimated cost.
In contrast a much larger park in Scotland saw Public Consultation started in 2018 on the 85 acre Auldcathie District Park in Scotland with phase one, consisiting of approximately 21 acres opened in September 2021 at a cost of just £8M for the reclaimed landfill site.
The Falkirk Herald states that "A significant part of the site is reclaimed from the Auldcathie landfill, which had lain unused for over 17 years. Extensive reclamation and capping works have taken place over the last two years to prepare the site." A similar scenario to what will happen on the Albert Basin site!
What our political representatives said:
June 2020 - "councillors and indeed council officials are investing, time, effort and money so we can ...apply for external funding"
In June 2020 Newry City Cllr Roisin Mulgrew said "We as councillors and indeed council officials are investing, time, effort and money so we can work on the rezoning of the land, apply for external funding and making sure the plans and designs are what the people want." - It took 15 months from Cllr Mulgrew's comment before they applied for anything and then just one application!
December 2020 - "a budget will be agreed for phase one of the work."
Cllr Michael Savage speaking after the third anniversary of the decision to build a park said "“The 15-acre site will now be completed by the council and we are now moving to the action stage where the design team will be in place by January and a budget will be agreed for phase one of the work." Sadly a budget wasn't agreed for phase one in early 2021. In fact as mentioned above Council have only committed £170,000.
May 2021 - Council asked to apply to Levelling Up Fund
In the Council's 4 May 2021 Monthly meeting Cllr Gavin Malone put forward a Notice of Motion regarding the Levelling up Fund calling for the Council to set up a committee "to develop an innovative strategy and action plan to maximise our opportunities with this substantial pot of money. I also request that the Council’s Number 1 priority ie; ‘The People’s Park’ on the Albert Basin site be seriously considered as a priority for this funding.”
In October 2021 Cllr Gavin Malone spoke about the missed opportunity after Newry, Mourne and Down Council didn't applying for the Levelling Up Funding for the Park. One applicant that was on the ball, Derry City and Strabane Council got over £16M for a project from the fund!
Cllr Malone said "This Levelling Up funding was ideal for the People’s Park as it targeted urban and city regeneration projects and we have lost a tremendous opportunity to attract much needed finance which could have complimented the other funding application recently submitted.
"The Council’s management have stated that they will target the next call for Levelling Up funding but I still believe we have missed a great opportunity." Newry.ie have asked Council if they will be applying for Levelling up Funding for the Park for the second tranche which has to be submitted by 6 July. We will keep you informed.
October 2021 - "Great to see Council moving proactively"
In October 2021 Newry and Armagh MLA Liz Kimmins spoke about Sinn Féin's search for funds and praised the Council's proactive stance “It’s great to see the Council moving proactively to try and secure funds to start works on the Albert Basin site for Newry’s city centre park.
The MLA added “Sinn Féin support and are fully committed to the delivery of a top of the range city centre park for Newry and have been urging the council to engage with all potential funders to draw down as much funding as possible for the project.
“Sinn Féin have already been very proactive in meeting with several groups over recent months to look at various funding streams for the project.
“A Sinn Féin delegation met with the Department of Foreign Affairs to discuss the possibility of Shared Island funding”.
“We have also had discussions with the Big Lottery Fund, The Department for Communities and the Reconciliation Fund about securing money for the project. On top of that- through our work on Louth County Council, Sinn Féin has placed the Newry city centre park on the Action Sheet as a priority for the strategic alliance between our Council areas" - Indeed Sinn Féin's Finance Minister Conor Murphy did award £16.2M in December 2021 but Council have not made any applications since, strange considering they are estimating that the park will cost over £30M and are showing no indication of investing significant Council funding.
