By Ryan Sands
THE council has said that it intends to complete an outline business case (OBC) for its ‘immersive tourism trail’ proposal, which seeks to retain £29.2m of Belfast Region City Deal (BRCD) funding, by the end of this year.
The local authority was responding to concerns raised about the progress of the project – which aims to connect Kilbroney Forest Park (Rostrevor) with Slieve Gullion Forest Park (south Armagh) and Delamont Country Park (Killyleagh) – by South Down MLA Diane Forsythe.
At last Wednesday’s (1 July) meeting of Stormont’s Committee of Finance, the DUP representative highlighted that there was no reference to the local project – the successor to the defunct Mourne Mountains Gateway Project that aimed to install gondola infrastructure on Slieve Donard and for which the funding had been secured – in a quarterly BRCD update report presented by Jillian Gilmore, Strategic Funding Division director within the Department of Finance.
Ms Forsythe told the committee that she found it “really concerning that a major project of £30m hasn’t even had a business case developed” and that it had not been flagged in the official’s report.
Responding, Ms Gilmore said that, in relation to the trail project, she didn’t know “much more than what has been in the media”.
She stated that she believed a consultant had been appointed to develop an OBC, adding that they would be able to “get a sense of the timeframe” for the project once the consultant completes that “programme of work”.
Ms Forsythe voiced her fear “that this has fallen through the cracks and is pretty much lost here in terms of the timescale”, stressing that it was her understanding that the project would have to be delivered by 2030.
She also said that local businesses were devastated at the prospect that the BRCD funding may not be retained within this district.
“They’re absolutely devastated to potentially lose this, and it just feels like nothing’s really moving here and nobody’s got a sense of urgency,” the DUP MLA added.
“Everybody’s so hopeful, but if the timescale doesn’t match, I think we need to be really clear with people what we’re actually dealing with here.”
Ms Gilmore told the committee that she didn’t “have any further information, but I will let you know as soon as I do”.
Posting online after the meeting, Ms Forsythe wrote that, following the collapse of the Mourne Mountains Gateway Project proposal – the council had aimed to deliver this by 2029 – it was “always going to need a marathon effort to get a new proposal developed, assessed, approved, planning, construction and delivery by 2030”.
“Newry, Mourne and Down District Council’s heel dragging has cost the people in this area,” she continued.
In the full story the council outlines the steps that it has taken in its efforts to deliver a successor project.
