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Three projects costing £20M, that were rejected when Newry, Mourne and Down Council applied for funding from the Belfast Region City Deal Complementary Fund may be resubmitted to the second round of the funding. This was disclosed at last night's monthly Council meeting (10 January) following an enquiry from Rowallane Councillor, Patrick Brown. Council submitted the applications for funding back in September 2021.
Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Conor Murphy announced that a fourth application submitted by council for the Albert Basin park was to receive £16.2M from the Complementary Fund. The three applications that failed to gain funding were an application for £10M for Active Travel projects; An application for £7M for a joint project with Warrenpoint and Larne ports and a £3M application for Kilkeel and Ardglass harbour developments.
The complementary funding is part of an additional pot supplied by the Department of Finance for complementary projects where partners can demonstrate a viable capital project which is complementary to their Belfast Region City Deal proposals. Newry, Mourne and Down Council applied for funding for the Southern Relief Road, Mourne Gateway project and Newry City Centre regeneration, from the City Deal and they are due to receive £131.4M for these when it is allocated.
Speaking at last nights meeting Cllr Brown spoke of his delight with the funding allocated for the Newry park and asked about the other applications "Were those applications rejected or are we still waiting on an outcome on those. If they were rejected, have we got feedback from the Dept of Finance as to why they were rejected" asked Brown.
In reply Council CEO Marie Ward said "I can confirm that they are not being considered by the Department of Finance in this round however we will look at when the second round of Complementary funding comes out. We haven't as yet asked for feedback on those but we will be obviously seeking feedback on all applications."
Explaining the reasons for not all projects being funded, the Finance Minister explained that the number of applications significantly exceeded the first tranches funding.
"Unfortunately, given the extent to which the bids received outweighed the funding available it is simply not possible to meet all the bids which have been supported by the relevant policy departments. This has meant that difficult decisions have had to be made. I appreciate that this may be disappointing for both the departments and the councils concerned. However, there will be an opportunity for City/Growth Deals will also be able to resubmit bids as part of the second tranche of funding."
