1 Comment
Despite three Freedom of Information requests to Newry, Mourne and Down District Council and the Department for Infrastructure, Newry.ie still hasn't managed to get sent a copy of the document that is a major contributary factor to the decision to build a fixed bridge over Newry Ship Canal as part of the DfI's Southern Relief Road project which would result in the 'death' of the 200 year old Ship Canal.
The 'Executive Summary - Maritime leisure and tourism at Albert Basin' document was undertaken by Capaxo Ltd and we understand that it said that a 'lifting bridge' would cost £25m more to provide. We understand that It also claimed that going by the curent level of boat use at the Albert Basin that it would take 8000 (yes thousand) years to break even. What it appears not to have documented was the potential for future tourism income if it was actually marketed as a facility council wanted people to use! The bottom line we believe is that the preferred option given was to put the tall ships in Warrenpoint and have the Albert Basin for rowing, canoeing etc. In other words work away with a fixed bridge DfI. A fixed bridge as proposed of around 12m will prevent tall ships or yachts from ever getting to Newry City again.
First shown the light of day (to councillors only) as Item 4 on the Agenda at the Council's Enterprise Regeneration and Tourism meeting on 12 April 2021 the item was called by the wonderful name of 'Presentation on Ecomomic Assessment of Water Based Activities' and included two exempt from the public documents 'ERT Report -Economic Assessment of Water Based Activities Presentation' and Appendix 1 - Executive Summary - Maritime leisure and tourism at Albert Basin vf'
Interestingly when the time came to vote on it and accept the officers recomendations re the documents 8 Councillors were against, 5 for and one abstention. The report was then defered to 10 May when it was voted on again and this time after they came out of closed session 12 voted for and 2 against which meant that they agreed to send the assessment documents to the Department for Infrastructure and at the same time send a letter that the Council's 'preferred option' was for a lifting bridge as well as informing them that there would be potential for tall ships to be berthed in Warrenpoint. Final score: Warenpoint 1: Newry 0. They were basically sending two documents to DfI with two conflicting requests but essentially the assessment document was the important one and the one that resulted in the Department moving forward with a non opening fixed bridge adopted.
The FOI Trail
Our first FOI to try and see these documents was sent 8/6/2021 and on 6/7/2021 and we were told their reason for not letting us see it was "The document is under Consideration by DFI, thus requires a safe space to consider this document frankly and fairly. Disclosure of the DOCUMENT could potentially create a ‘chilling effect’ by undermining future frank discussions. The fear of premature release is likely to lead to officials being more guarded around what and when information is shared with stakeholders, which in turn could stifle or delay important discussions regarding any proposals being considered."
Following the announcement by DfI that they were proceeding with a fixed bridge we tried Council again on 3/3/2023 considering that the DfI had now done their 'consideration' but to no avail. This time reasons for non disclosure were put forward and the Councils 'safe space' was to the fore again "Likelihood of disclosure having an adverse effect on the commercial interests of Council" and "Disclosure of the withheld information would provide a distraction that would invade Council’s safe space to consider the withheld information and inhibit the Council’s ability to progress the project."
Not to be outdone our third request was made to the Department for Infrastructure on 16/3/2023. This time we got an extensive 1841 word reply which informed us that the Department liaised with the council to help them make their decision not to give us the document.
An interesting comment told us that it was up to our Council to decide what information they provided and they weren't under any obligation to send the document they did. "While the Department for Infrastructure did invite the Council to provide information in support of its arguments in relation to proposals for the Southern Relief Road Bridge in Newry, it did not mandate the particular form of that information, and the Council was clearly in a position to decide on the information that it would provide to the Department. Clearly, there was no legal obligation requiring the Council to provide the Department with the Executive Summary."
Other comments included "The first of the reasons that the Council relies upon, when arguing that the Executive Summary should not be disclosed was that the information is confidential, due to commercial sensitivity" as well as "The second argument for withholding information was that the author of the summary had assured those involved in providing feedback that their identities would be protected"
It is important to say that a bridge structure doesn't have to have an expensive lifting mechanism, it just needs to open and it also only needs to be the width of Victoria Lock and not the width of Newry Ship Canal.
