Demand for council audit over £1bn confidence and supply deal

Demand for council audit over £1bn confidence and supply deal

21 May 2025

A DUP politician is demanding a Newry, Mourne and Down Council audit as concern mounts that his party’s £1bn confidence and supply deal with the Conservative party when it was in power at Westminster has been impacted by the loss of the controversial Mournes Gateway project.

At a recent meeting of Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s Audit Committee, Rowallane councillor Callum Bowsie said his main concern was the gondola and the failure to deliver a capital investment programme for the district and looking at the potential root cause.

“I would have expected on the corporate risk register that there would be more of a narrative about the risk and what is going to happen. There is still potential risk in there,” he told the meeting.

“We are talking about the potential waste of a million pounds from the council on this. How much has the council already spent on the gondola project to date?”

Cllr Bowsie asked what assurance was received from the National Trust that would demonstrate the gondola project had a fair expectation of progressing before spending commenced. 

He also asked what action will the council take to recoup the £1m money spent on the gondola project from the National Trust

Cllr Bowsie added: “The Belfast Region City Deal money was secured by the DUP from the confidence and supply agreement and it would be disappointing to see it lost in Newry, Mourne and Down and for our ratepayers. 

“What steps have been taken to see if the £30m funding can be secured by council for other projects in the district?”

Mournes SDLP councillor Laura Devlin said councillors were acutely aware of the major risk they had hanging over them.

“I know we got a significant update 14 months ago, whenever there was a discussion around alternatives and if we did want to go down that route we would have to go back to the beginning of the process.

“There has been so much work that has gone on over the past number of months and years to get us to where we are, I am definitely deeply concerned and hope that we can get a project to retain the money.

A council officer said detailed costs from the inception of the project were not currently available.

The officer continued: ”One of the conditions of the contract for funding from the Department for the Economy, was that we enter in to a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Trust and that set out the conditions under which they would consider a lease and how they would work in partnership with the council in order to get to that position. 

“And that allowed a contract for funding to be agreed and signed,” said the officer.

“I would not be in a position to answer how money would be recouped. That would be a matter for council when the facts have been gathered.”

The officer added: “It’s only been a week since the National Trust made its decision. We have engaged this week already with BRCD partners and have further meetings tomorrow. I hope to have a clearer view of how to secure the funding then.”