Do councillors really need a second 41-seater debating Chamber?

With a 41-seat Council debating chamber in Downpatrick underutilised as more and more councillors choose to go online to attend meetings - saving on travel time, fuel expense claims and in the process reducing their carbon emission as well as food costs - is there really a need for duplication, do councillors need a second full-sized 41-seat chamber in the proposed new offices behind Newry Cathedral?

That’s what Newry.ie asked the council’s SDLP, Sinn Féin, DUP, UUP and Alliance party leaders but, they had little to say, with only the Alliance Party’s Andy McMurray responding.

Currently the seat of administrative power for Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is in Downpatrick. It hosts monthly and ‘special’ meetings, with the likes of Health Trusts and the Department for Infrastructure, as well as a number of council committees. The chamber in the £11m Downpatrick Civic Centre, was officially opened in May 2013.

Initially it accommodated the ‘Shadow Council’ ahead of the amalgamation of the legacy Newry and Mourne, and Down district councils in April 2015 with the old Newry and Mourne 30-seat chamber now used for committee meetings, including Planning (The Southern Trust recently agreed to buy the council offices at Monaghan Row in Newry).

Down councillors caught their Newry and Mourne counterparts sleeping at the wheel on this one. While they moved ahead with plans to build new council offices in Downpatrick with an expanded chamber to accommodate the new ‘super-council’, in Newry, talk was of the ‘only city in the district’ being the administrative centre but movement was too slow and the bar of ambition set low - renovate the existing 30-seater chamber to accommodate another 11 elected representatives…and that never happened.

Pre-pandemic, monthly meetings were a hive of activity, with councillors from across the district descending on Downpatrick for the main gathering of each month. 

However, Covid changed all that leading to the rapid introduction of remote meetings via the likes of Teams and Zoom and dramatically altering how meetings were and are now conducted as many councillors attend online.

NOT FULLY UTILISED

Full Council meetings

Plans for a new full-sized 41-seater chamber are included in the planning application for the council’s proposed new offices in Newry, but with in-person attendance figures reflecting the changed times and how people do business, it is the unclear why councillors would want to spend ratepayers’ money on such a facility in Newry.

Newry.ie looked at Full Council monthly meeting attendance in Downpatrick for the council calendar year June 2, 2022, to April 4, 2023, the last meeting prior to the recent local government election.

There were just 11 meetings with attendance as follows:

• There was a possible full attendance of 451 (11 meetings x 41 Cllrs)
• Attendance was 405 - 89.8%
• 46 were absent - 10.2%
• Of the 405, 258 councillors attended the Downpatrick Chamber - 63.7%
• 147 out of the 405 attended via teams - 36.6%
• The biggest attendance in person by councillors was 34 at the June 2022 full council meeting.
• After that it dropped to 28, 27, 26, 23, 22, 19 and 13.
• Two meetings had only 13 councillors in the Downpatrick Chamber with, 22 and 15 councillors joining online respectively.

Low attendance Special Meetings

During the same period (2/6/22-4/4/23), there were five Special Meetings from September 12, 2022, to January 30, 2023 - all in Downpatrick.

These were with the local Health Trusts (Southern, South Eastern and Ambulance), the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, DfI Roads Service, Credit Unions and Northern Ireland Electricity. 

• There was a total possible attendance of 205 (41x 5 meetings)
• Only 98 councillors attended in total - 47.8%
• 107 were absent - 52.2%
• Of the 98, only 32 councillors attended in-person in Downpatrick - 32.65%
• Of the 98, 66 councillors attended online - 67.35%.

At these meetings, only the Housing Executive attended in person, but they also had three people attending online. All other third parties attended via online.

There was a sixth special meeting following the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II last September. However, the minutes do not include details of how councillors attended.

Online preferred for committee meetings 

If you examine in-Chamber attendances for committees in Newry and Downpatrick, the majority of councillors join the meetings remotely.

Newry.ie looked at four committees, Active Healthy Communities (AHC) and Strategy, Policy and Resources (SP&R) which meets in Downpatrick and Newry based committees Enterprise, Regeneration & Tourism (ERT) and Sustainability & Environment (S&E).

All four committees have 15 members allowing for a total attendance of 135 per committee over the nine meetings each held.

In Downpatrick at AHC:

• Actual attendance was 114 - 84.4%
• Of the 114, 49 were in-person - 42.98%
• Of the 114, 65 were via Teams - 57.02%

In Downpatrick at SP&R:

• Actual attendance was 125 - 92.59%
• 68 were in-person - or 54.4%%
• 57 were via Teams - 45.6%

In Newry at ERT:

• Actual attendance was 111 - 82.22%
• 53 attended in-person - 47.75%
• 58 joined via Teams - 52.25%

In Newry at S&E:

• Actual attendance was 99 - 73.33%
• 36 attended in-person - 36.36%
• 63 joined via Teams - 63.64%

Overall, the four committees had a possible total attendance of 540.

• Actual attendance was 449 - 83.15%
• Of the 449, 206 attended in-person (45.88%) while 243 joined via Teams (53.12%).

Newry.ie asked the local Sinn Féin, the SDLP, UUP, DUP and Alliance group party leaders that if councillors are not using the Chamber in Downpatrick to its full capacity, did they need a second full-sized Chamber in Newry? 

If they felt they did, they were asked to explain what the second Chamber needs were when they don’t fully use what they already have in Downpatrick?

Newry.ie also asked how could councillors justify the spending of ratepayers’ money on a second chamber if the first one was being underutilised?

Political silence 

The overwhelming response from the parties was silence.

Only Alliance Party Group Leader Cllr Andy McMurray replied: “Alliance have been consistent in our concerns over the proposed Council Civic Centre in Newry,” he said.

“Whilst we recognise new council offices are needed in Newry, there is no justification for spending tens of millions of ratepayers’ money on a new build in a totally unsuitable site at Abbey Way. 

“We would prefer to see the renovation of existing real estate in the city centre which could add regeneration value at a much lower cost to ratepayers.

“Whilst we acknowledge that a Council Chamber will be required in the new council offices, a full Chamber replicating the current capacity in the Downshire is excessive and unnecessary, and would represent duplication of public services, something which Alliance has always opposed.”