Councillor withdraws from committee over HQ plans

Councillor withdraws from committee over HQ plans

16 October 2024

A LOCAL politician has withdrawn from Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s Planning Committee as it continues to deal with a controversial application for a new multi-million pound new local authority headquarters in Newry.

Downpatrick councillor Cadogan Enright is encouraging other members of the Planning Committee to follow his lead and temporarily withdraw.

The move comes after the temporary withdrawal of the planning application for the proposed new £20m civic centre in the heart of the city – which will include a new local authority headquarters – in the face of a legal challenge on behalf of Newry Cathedral.

Cllr Enright and his Alliance colleagues have been waging a five-year campaign against the proposed new centre branding it a “gross waste of ratepayers money”.

He said the planning application has attracted “record-breaking opposition” with nearly 3,500 objections and insists the proposal should be decided by the regional planning office.

“This project is spoiling what otherwise could have been an effective regeneration project for Newry,” claimed Cllr Enright.

“The emphasis needs to completely change and focus on what the local population want and towards projects like the Albert Basin river park.”

Confirming he has temporarily withdrawn from the Planning Committee as the application is being considered, Cllr Enright has explained why he is urging other councillors to do the same. 

“It is contrary to the Code of Conduct for councillors to vote on a project that they have already made public statements upon,” he argued.

“This is seen as pre-judging an issue. It is also against the code of conduct for political parties to ‘whip’ their councillors to vote one way or the other in the Planning Committee.

“Councillors are all ‘tainted’ on this subject and cannot decide this application which must be referred to the Regional Planning Office if this application returns for decision at all,” he continued, confirming he has raised his concerns with the Local Government Ombudsman.

Cllr Enright continued: “It is utterly reprehensible for the council as custodian of the local planning system to bring forward such a sub-standard planning application.

“If a private company brought forward a proposal to build an office block on a flood plain in the centre of Newry on a site that acted as that city’s main car park without the hundreds of parking spaces necessary for such a public building, they would be turned down flat.”

Cllr Enright said there was no business case to support the size of the civic centre proposal.

“We need a small, modern building for council staff in Newry. Sinn Fein and the SDLP need to stop this project in its tracks and not push it any further,”he remarked.

“Alliance recognise Downpatrick is our county town and we will continue to challenge the SDLP and Sinn Fein to accept this and give up on their grandiose and unaffordable scheme for Newry City.”

“These parties need to listen to the people of Newry and use one of the many derelict sites in the city for a moderate, inexpensive front-office for the council to house its Newry-based staff only.”

South Down MLA Andrew McMurray said local Alliance councillors have been campaigning against “this gross waste of ratepayers money” since 2019.

“It is clear to Alliance that the council already has a newly-built headquarters in Downpatrick and the notion of having a new and grossly oversized HQ in Newry, with a full duplicate debating chamber, is frankly ridiculous and a costly, unaffordable vanity project,” he added.