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A Mournes Councillor has said that any Councillor or anyone in the Council calling for the Department for Infrastructure to change their current plans for a fixed bridge over the historic and listed Newry Ship Canal is "delaying the inevitable"
Councillor Glyn Hanna was speaking at Monday nights August Newry, Mourne and Down District Council meeting where correspondence from the Department for Infrastructure Permanent Secretary re the Fixed Bridge Design for Newry Southern Relief Road was debated. In the letter the Permanent Secretary appeared to rule out her department changing from the fixed bridge option they are progressing with and suggested any changes would delay the scheme.
Newry City Councillors Michael Savage, Doire Finn and Cathal King started the discussions at the meeting. Cllr Savage asked for a meeting between council and Shared Island funders while Cllr Finn spoke of a fixed bridge destroying tourism while Cllr King welcomed an announced upcoming meeting between DfI and council.
Following their input Cllr Glyn Hanna who is a board member of Warrenpoint Port said "I read the response from the secretary and at the same time all Michael Savage and this Council is probably doing is actually delaying the massive economic impact that Southern relief road would have to this area.
"Number one there's a complete redesign of the bridge has to be done, there's substantially more money to be spent and the big thing is it's going to delay everything. It could possibly delay this here by another two to three years because there's so many things that has to be overcome, and it far outweighs getting the Southern Relief Road into place should it be for Warrenpoint Harbour and this whole region."
Cllr Hanna concluded "That Southern Relief Road needs to go ahead and I only think that all Michael Savage and anybody in this Council that's calling for this is doing is delaying the inevitable. Its going to happen without it, I believe We need to get the economic impact in and we'll all reap the benefits of it.”
As well as the three Newry City Councillors, Slieve Croob Councillor Andrew McMurray and Slieve Gullion Councillor David Taylor also spoke.
Leading up to Cllr Hannas comments Cllr Savage said "This is about more than engineering and more than budgets. I understand that the economic appraisal element of this would have been very difficult to stand up for any minister regardless who they were, but what value do you put on future potential for tourism development, which is one of our key economic drivers within Council?
"That's a question that I don't think any permanent secretary or anybody counting the beans would be able to give a valuation on. That said, I firmly believe that there is an opportunity before we go down this route of a fixed bridge that appears DFI are determined to do there'll be exhausted opportunities with the Shared Island unit."
Positive
Cllr Cathal King said "It was positive to see more so the recent correspondence circulated earlier today that DfI will now meet and engage with Councillors where they will hear the people's concerns. This is what Sinn Fein called for and wanted from the start with the support of other councilllors. I welcome this recent development, and I look forward to the future meeting."
Destroys future tourism
Cllr Doire Finn had been down at the Albert Basin last week when a flotilla of boats had made the trip up the Newry Ship Canal. " It was really pleasing to see that there were a number of tall ships and other vessels actually came up into the Albert Basin and it was really wonderful to see, particularly in terms of tourism because I met a lot of people while I was down at the event who said actually, this is something that they would like to see more of.
"I think if we look at putting a fixed bridge in there, it absolutely destroys any future tourism that we will get from our wonderful historic canal that is one of the most historic that we have in Europe. I would like to put on record that again, myself and my other colleagues have been opposed to any form of lifting [sic fixed] bridge and that we look towards exploring, instead of a particularly financial aspect, that we look towards actually seeing what impact that a lifting bridge would have on tourism for the area and that there is an assessment done on that moving forward."
Navigable
Cllr Andrew McMurray "Just to say support for some of the previous speakers and the previous points made, certainly Cllr Savage and Cllr Kings and also Cllr Finn's eyeball report of the tall ships going in I think it will always been very important to have it navigable by Tall Ships and that is the settle view of this Council.
Cllr David Taylor added "I speak as someone that certainly supports the concept of a lifting bridge and obviously see the benefits from an economic point of view regarding the maritime history of Newry and the potential to open the waterway that exists if something like that was required.
Councillor Hanna raises a valid point as well. I've read through the correspondence here, obviously, and they've outlined a lot of the challenges that there are are present, both financial and infrastructural, in terms of dealing with the concept, and it's ok, you can make calls for the Irish Government to try and fund or assist to fund projects but we also have to realise there's an ongoing maintenance of these roads as well that will cost our local budget money as the years go on.
"We need to take all of this in the mix whenever we're giving consideration to this and I know myself that the Southern Relief Road is a very important project for the economic prosperity of this area and Warrenpoint Port is one example of that. I know from meeting with the Port on occasions that they have outlined the importance of getting this over the line and getting it moved on. And it's not just about the Port. The Port's an important component of that because it's obviously a key economic driver in our area, but there's other benefits from it as well."
Concern for undue delays
Cllr Taylor expressed his concerns about putting a decision off. "I just want to say that here tonight that we can't put this off in the long grass and hope at some point we'll find a resolution to this issue, because at the moment the Department seem to be pretty adamant as to where they are on it. Now if a minister comes in in the coming months, things may change and they may look may look at it from a different point of view. But nobody knows where we are in that regard.
"I would be concerned as well about a project of this nature, a project we've been waiting on for many many years, when we are making some progress on it, that there isn't any undue delays as a consequence of something. If we could find a resolution to it all, that would be very good for everybody involved but there is a lot of issues to overcome here going by the correspondence that's been outlined by the Permanent Secretary so it's something we're just going to be mindful about in the coming weeks and months as discussions take place. I look forward to the presentation that they're going to make and the opportunity for us to question the Department on that. And once we get that over us, we'll probably have a better picture as to where we are."
Historic preservation
Cllr Doire Finn spoke again to clarify "Just in relation to the comments made by Councillors Hanna and Taylor I think it is really important just to put on record that this isn't a matter of causing delay, but I think as a representative for Newry I've had more people say to me, I've had it mentioned to me on a number of occasions, everything needs to be done and I think it's really vitally important in terms of looking at the historic preservation of the area that we need to be making sure that we aren't rubber stamping decisions that are coming through, and that we're working for, particularly for myself, the people in the city that elected me."
Newry.ie has asked Newry, Mourne and Down District Council and Cllr Hanna for clarification on whether there was a potential conflict of interest in the Councillor discussing the item while being a board member of Warrenpoint Port.
