Approval for centre given in the face of 2,600 objections

Approval for centre given in the face of 2,600 objections

25 June 2025

MORE than 2,600 objections were lodged in opposition to the new civic centre proposal.

The £17m investment is designed to relocate 215 council staff in the city onto a single site on what’s currently a multi-story car park in the Abbey Way area.

Given the local authority’s hybrid working model, it’s expected that the new hub will cater for 162 staff on a daily basis.

The several thousand objections focused on a wide range of issues including traffic and parking, need, design, scale, flood and ecology concerns and the application process itself.

A decision on planning approval has been deferred on a number of occasions with the latest coming last month when an approval recommendation was deferred after objectors highlighted concerns in relation to the way the project’s planning application had been submitted.

The main objection was the loss of city centre parking spaces adjacent to Newry cathedral and Hill Street.

Last week’s Planning Committee meeting heard representations from the project’s promoters and objectors.

The team behind the proposal said the project was “sympathetic to the gothic style cathedral” in terms of design and choice of materials and it was highlighted that the current multi-story car park — where the building is to be located — is poorly used and 136 spaces would be retained immediately adjacent.

Objectors argued this was not enough s to cope with demand during weddings, communions and funerals at the near 200 year old Cathedral or to serve businesses and shoppers in Hill Street.

In addition, objectors questioned aspects of the project’s planning application in terms of what they perceive to be errors, gaps and missing or outdated information.

Planners said they were satisfied with the information provided and recommended approval.

At the beginning of the second meeting last Thursday, councillors took legal advice behind-closed doors and before the planners’ approval recommendation was put to the vote, Downpatrick Alliance Cllr Cadogan Enright withdrew from the meeting.

He claimed the detail of the legal advice was withheld from councillors because of the “likely event of at least one judicial review of the planning process”.

Cllr Enright said committee members were told they would have to make up their own minds with Sinn Fein and the SDLP “ramming it though” in the absence of legal advice on this matter.

The planners’ approval recommendation was supported by four votes to one. There was one abstention with only half of the committee members in attendance.