Council’s continued silence on spending your money

The Council’s continued reluctance to be open and transparent about how many millions of pounds of public money it intends to spend on its new offices behind Newry Cathedral continues - but to that silence you can add how much it has spent to date on the city centre regeneration projects.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council had from August 21, 2017, to August 31, 2019, spent £358,110 of ratepayers’ money on its proposed new offices and the theatre/conference centre.

At that point in 2019, the two projects combined would cost ratepayers £20m to build…so councillors and the local media were advised by council management. 

Fast forward to February 2022 - the last publicly available estimated cost figure for the Theatre/Conference Centre was £18.4m while it was believed the council offices were projected to cost £15m+…that was just post-Covid and before the cost-of-living, cost-to-do-business crises, and the huge jump in construction inflation.

Newry.ie recently asked the Council for an update on the money it has spent on the projects - from August 2019 - seeking Transaction Dates, Creditor Names and Total Amounts. The same information that had been released before.

While previously the Council was open and transparent about spending ratepayers’ money on the projects, this time around it’s a different story with the request refused as the information is now “considered commercially sensitive and is therefore being withheld under Regulation 12(5)(e) of the Environmental information Regulations 2004 - confidentiality of commercial or industrial information.”

To engage Regulation 12(5)(e), the Council must consider the public interest test. The two ‘Factors listed in favour of disclosing’ the information were, ‘Promotes openness and transparency’ and ‘General public interest in matters relating to the environment’.

However, the ‘Factors in favour of withholding’ the information requested included, ‘Likelihood of disclosure having an adverse effect on the progression of the project’ and ‘Misinformation relating to the withheld information could also lead to premature speculation on this project. Such unnecessary disruption cannot be in the public interest’.

Seeking clarification

The Council has been asked to explain what it means by “Likelihood of disclosure having an adverse effect on the progression of the project” - how could a public body being open and transparent on spending public/ratepayers’ money have an adverse effect on the progression of the project? 

And what factors were taken into consideration or what evidence does the Council have to come to that conclusion?

Newry.ie has also asked the Council to clarify its claim that, “Misinformation relating to the withheld information could also lead to premature speculation on this project”?

Was it implying that in some way the public would be misinformed by Newry.ie and what misinformation did it envisages would come about from being open and transparent and how it could lead to premature speculation on this project if the figures were published?

We await the response.

Almost £2m

While the Council won’t release updated spend figures for the Newry City Centre Regeneration projects, Newry.ie has had sight of figures up to January 2021.

These figures cover ‘Project Feasibility & Management Resource’, ‘Theatre/ Conference design development’, ‘Civic Hub Design development’, ‘Public Realm Design development’ and ‘Grade A Office Accommodation’.

The total spend rose from £358,110 at the end of August 2019, to £1,128,000 - 17 months later, January 2021.

The figures also show an additional £668,000 was to be taken into consideration as ‘work in progress’/ ‘estimated spend to procurement’ bringing what would be the estimated total to the procurement stage to £1,796,000.

Whether that estimated spend figure changes remains to be seen.