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Opinion
Could 2023 finally be the year that Newry residents see progress on our landmark Newry City Park? After all the Motion unamiously agreed by Councillors in November 2017 to to build the park, agreed that it would be 'delivered' by the end of this council term (May 2023) which is fastly approaching! Local Council elections will be held in May and no doubt the Albert Basin Park will once again be high up on the agenda for voters but words are not enough any more, we need action.
A beautiful shiny new sign sits at the entrance to the Albert Basin proclaiming 'Your Plans ... Your Park'. Oh if it could be that straightforward! Since the group Newry 2020 started their grassroots campaign way back in 2014 for a 15 Acre park at the Albert Basin in Newry there have been many false dawns, with the sun yet to come up above the popular project. You would be inclined to think if it was 'your plans', the park would have already begun and could indeed be finished at this stage.
To a blaze of publicity it was announced just over a year ago, in December 2021 that the Department of Finance under Finance Minister of the time, Conor Murphy MLA had found £16.2m to help fund the project. A year later that money still hasn't been released and the estimated costs have in that time gone up by over a million pounds.
Currently an Outline Business Case for the project is with the Department for Communities who have to approve the OBC before releasing funds. It is hoped that if all goes well, this may happen in the Spring, paving the way for the next stage of the project, procurement of the Design Team. The next concern is the Council's suggested 5 years needed to complete the project from the Design Team Procurement is made, meaning that if this begins in March 2023 the park won't be complete until March 2028 at the earliest.
At the November 2022 SP&R Council meeting an agenda item entitled 'Newry City Park Project - Outline Business Case' held in committee, saw Council agreeing to what on the surface sounds like an 'open cheque' The meeting minutes state "On the proposal of Councillor Byrne, seconded by Councillor Murphy, it was agreed Elected Members approve to underwrite any additional financial cost for the Newry City Park Project over and above the funding currently ringfenced for the project." It sounds wonderful but with so many complex manoeuvres and counter manoeuvres going on, and most of them away from the public gaze, it really means nothing. As we said before Council have claimed the entire project will take over £30m to build. This is at a time when larger parks are being completed elsewhere for less than £6m. Council on the one hand have said the park will be built in phases with the outline business case to draw down the £16.2m funding just for Phase One. On the other hand it seems they have not been looking for funding for any future phases, despite several suitable funds being open which makes it look as if Phase One is all we are going to get.
Progress to date on this project which has the capacity to utterly transform Newry City if done right has been non existant. Every step has seen proverbial 'spanners' thrown in the works ... or rather lack of works. Perhaps 2023 will at last be the year when this project gets going in earnest. As residents of Newry City we are entitled to expect our park to be one of our Council's top priorities. It also must be amongst the best parks in Ireland. Nothing else will do.
