Newry council HQ project suffers planning setback

Newry council HQ project suffers planning setback

7 May 2025

A DECISION to delay plans for a new £17m civic centre in Newry have been welcomed by a local politician.

Plans for a new Newry, Mourne and Down Council headquarters in the city have been delayed after what has been described as a “blatant error” in the local authority’s planning application.

The civic centre project has been beset by controversy with more than 2,500 parishioners at the nearby Cathedral signing a petition opposing the building amid claims it will leave them nowhere to park during Mass.

It was revealed at last week’s meeting of the council’s Planning Committee that there had been a procedural error in regards to the requirement for a pre-application community consultation report.

Downpatrick councillor Cadogan Enright praised the campaign led by Newry Cathedral’s Catholic Parish against the proposed second council HQ in the city. 

He said the parish’s intervention resulted in deferring any decision on the project until further legal advice was received.

Cllr Enright said he had worked closely with the church on the campaign and produced a four-page newsletter detailing how the project was not required by the council to deliver any of its services.

He said the document also explained how thousands of square meters of office space was available at much cheaper rates across the city to accommodate the current staff employed in Newry.

Cllr Enright continued: “The objectors on behalf of the Parish referred to legislation stating that a public consultation should have been submitted before the full application was lodged to make it valid. 

“But it was alleged this was not done until some four months later.

“It appears to me that two years and one month later the planning application for the second council HQ was invalid from the outset. The council does not have the right to set aside the legislation.” 

Cllr Enright said ratepayers could save over £10m by buying or renting one of the many vacant modern city centre offices in Newry for the small number of council staff based there.

He added: “The merger between Down and Newry and Mourne councils was supposed to drive down cost for the benefit of the ratepayer, not duplicate giant administrative buildings.

“Downpatrick is the county town and we only need one headquarters and one council chamber.

Any council building in Newry should strictly reflect actual need and not a vanity project to build a second headquarters.”