Council ‘snubs’ Rowallane over EU funding

Council ‘snubs’ Rowallane over EU funding

1 May 2024

NEWRY, Mourne and Down Council has been accused of “snubbing” the Rowallane District Electoral Area after it refused to make a single penny available to projects in the area bidding for a slice of a multi-million pound EU funding cake.

Just one project was included in a shortlist of 34 schemes seeking financial support under the PeacePlus initiative which allocates funding for community projects.

The EU money is to support capital projects across the local authority’s seven DEAs to develop spaces for cross-community interaction, but Rowallane councillor Callum Bowsie is furious that the area he represents has missed out.

He had urged the local authority to defer allocating any money until all 34 projects had been reviewed.

However, the local authority has selected a final 25 projects to support, with not a penny allocated for the Rowallane area.

Cllr Bowsie said he was “appalled” the area he represents has been “totally snubbed of community funding”.

Last month, he revealed that 34 projects seeking financial support had indeed been shortlisted to receive PeacePlus funding for community projects.

“After being whittled down to 25 this week, Rowallane has not been selected for a single project and will now not get a single penny of the colossal eight-figure sum being dished out in Newry, Mourne and Down Council,” Cllr Bowsie declared.

“I continue to raise this issue in council and continue to be told there is a capacity issue in Rowallane. This isn’t good enough. Rowallane had four applications submitted just like Crotlieve had. 

“Yet while three out of four applications were successful there, none of the four from Rowallane were. I am confident that three of the Rowallane applications were high calibre.”

Cllr Bowsie said Slieve Gullion topped the success list with six of the eight projects submitted successful. In addition, he said it was the only DEA which secured almost £3m in Levelling Up Funding last year.

“If the sole nationalist DEA in a predominantly unionist council repeatedly received the least funding there would rightly be outrage,” he declared.

“The DUP will continue to vote against such unfair council recommendations in committee until this area gets its fair slice of the funding cake.”

A Newry, Mourne and Down Council spokeswoman said the Special EU Programmes Body has provisionally allocated up to £7.5m to the organisation for a Co-designed Local Action Plan to deliver community activities and infrastructure projects that help build peace and reconciliation within the district. 

She said the authority has worked with communities and partners to develop the plan for the district which will deliver 20 programmes under three overarching themes — local community regeneration and transformation, thriving and peaceful communities and celebrating cultures and diversity.

“The programmes were developed through a series of co-design workshops across each DEA, followed by consultation with the workshop stakeholders and the PeacePlus Partnership, which is reflective of the community across Newry, Mourne and Down,” the spokeswoman continued.

In recent months, the council has completed an expression of interest with the local community to put forward potential capital projects which would meet the criteria under the local community regeneration and transformation theme of which one Rowallane project is in reserve.”

The spokeswoman added: “This will result in the council working in partnership with the community to deliver upon two programmes within the action plan under this theme.

“Upon receipt of the letter of offer, the council, through the PeacePlus Partnership, will be delivering the co-designed action plan which will be available for the whole community to participate in.”