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An attack by one councillor on political opponents in the Council chamber, at the February Strategy, Policy and Resources (SP&R) committee, branding them “amateur politicians”, seemed somewhat ironic after the same committee went behind closed doors at its April meeting to discuss, ironically, information, that had already been put into the public domain by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council last summer.
The committee was discussing “Exempt Minutes of Newry City Centre Regeneration (NCCR) Programme Board Meeting” from February 5 this year - an item on the agenda on the Council's proposed controversial new offices behind Newry Cathedral and planned theatre/conference centre beside the Town Hall.
With the press and public excluded the information Council management was sharing with the councillors ‘in committee’, wasn’t such a big secret with some of the material made available to the public as far back as July 2023 while two related stories had been published on Newry.ie last November.
The information the councillors discussed, which Newry.ie has been made aware of, related to costs incurred by ratepayers to date of just over £2,000,000 for the Newry City Centre Regeneration Projects even though not a sod has been turned or a brick laid in eight years since councillors gave the NCCR Projects the go ahead in 2016.
These figures have been available to the public in the NCCR Project Board minutes obtainable on request from the Council and have been previously published by local media.
These important Project Board minutes, however, are not made available directly for examination by councillors sitting on the SP&R committee which is supposed to be responsible for the scrutiny of the multi-million pounds ratepayer-funded Newry City Centre Regeneration project.
Such is the set-up of the Council governance of the projects, only a select few councillors get to see the Project Board minutes.
A maximum of seven councillors (from a total of 41 elected representatives) on the NCCR Programme Board (if they all turn up) see the Project Board minutes. They are not presented to councillors to examine on the SP&R committee which is supposed to be responsible for scrutinising the multi-million pounds ratepayer-funded projects.
Nine months old information
As well as the £2m+ spent so far, councillors were also informed behind closed doors of the RIBA Stage 3 costs to build the proposed Theatre/Conference Centre and new Council offices/Civic Hub - but not to fit out to finish, which will add many more millions of pounds to the ratepayers’ bill.
Again, this information is out in the public domain and has been for months.
The Theatre/Conference Project was publicly tendered on July 4, 2023, nine months ago, on the UK Government’s website Gov.uk, with a closing date of August 11, 2023. The ‘Estimated value’ of the tender was listed at £23,000,000, excluding VAT.
The tender for the proposed Council Offices was published on Gov.uk on October 10, 2023, with a closing date of November 17, 2023, and an ‘Estimated value’ of £18,000,000, excluding VAT.
No reply
Slieve Croob councillor Siobhan O’Hare chairs the SP&R committee for 2023/24. It’s a committee that has been highlighted in the media in the recent past for doing much of its council business behind closed doors, away from the press and public.
Newry.ie asked Cllr O’Hare did the unwarranted secrecy of discussing publicly available information further add to the narrative of the lack of openness and transparency within Newry, Mourne and Down District Council?
And was it not a ridiculous situation that the Council was now discussing such information ‘in committee’?
Cllr O’Hare did not respond.
