THE council’s chief executive has given an impassioned defence of its process for progressing the Mourne Mountains Gateway Project. During yet another lengthy and fractious debate on the multimillion-pound scheme – at Thursday’s Strategy, Policy and Resources (SPR) Committee meeting – Marie Ward robustly refuted claims made by Alliance’s Tierna Kelly (Rowallane) that councillors were being asked to “sign off on a blank cheque to approve any future increase in costs” in delivering it. The chief executive – who highlighted she is also the local authority’s chief financial officer – said that “there is absolutely no way would we sit here and ask any councillor to sign a blank cheque”, and that any suggestion that they were doing so was “wholly wrong” and “wholly inaccurate”.
The project – currently costed at £44m by council, with £30m to be funded by the Belfast Region City Deal (BRCD) – would link Donard Park to a visitor centre on the National Trustowned Thomas Quarry on Slieve Donard by gondola. The committee debate centred around a recommendation to formalise that ‘council acknowledge any costs over and above the £30m BRCD contribution for the Mourne Mountains Gateway Project are to be met by council’, and another to approve draft contract for funding and funding agreement documents, which have not been made public. A report presented to councillors acknowledged that Department for the Economy advisors had estimated that the scheme will cost ‘circa £50m’, though added that ‘this was contrary to the advice from council’s professional costs consultant for the project’. ‘However, both the council and the department recognise that, given the project’s early stage of development, there cannot be absolute certainty over the development costs,’ it continued. ‘As the design develops, however, this will provide further information to inform a decision on the budget requirement.’ Starting the debate, Cadogan Enright (Alliance, Downpatrick) proposed that the recommendations be rejected “until we see a full analysis and debate a risk register for this project”, and said that the report had been “founded on a memorandum of understanding, which, if you read it, clearly indicates that the National Trust are not on board”. Oonagh Hanlon (Sinn Féin, Downpatrick) responded that she recognised concerns about the project, and that these “will be dealt with as we move through the consultations”. “A project is managed as it goes along – that is what the role of the project board is,” she stated. “They will be critical and will scrutinise it at every point, and, at the end, it will become a world-class tourist attraction. “It is disappointing that some parties wish to be completely negative about it at every point and turn, and that saddens me.” Cllr Kelly, who seconded Cllr Enright’s proposal, said that her party “simply cannot sign off of a project that is now projected to be about £50m”. “This report asks councillors to essentially sign off on a blank cheque to approve any future increase in costs,” she added. “I simply cannot sign off on that, and I don’t understand why other councillors and parties are content to sign off on this report with the increased financial burden and potential future increases.”
Gareth Sharvin (SDLP, Downpatrick) stated that the council would “strive to go out and get external funding” from other sources for the project, and that if the National Trust “were not fully on board, they would not sign a memorandum of understanding”. Pete Byrne (SDLP, Slieve Gullion) criticised Alliance for bringing what he called “disinformation” to the meeting. “We get it through the project board, we get it through SPR, and we get it through full council,” he said. “No matter how many times the questions are answered, the same questions are put for populist headlines. “Let’s be truthful with the public, let’s stop looking for headlines, and let’s, for once, stop disrespecting the staff here in social media posts and media articles that are probably already written – going out and saying we are signing off on a blank cheque. “I would ask you simply to wise up.” Interjecting, Cllr Hanlon stated that “there seems to be a complete lack of understanding from the Alliance Party on how a project actually is delivered”, adding that “there are all these mistruths being peddled”. She also highlighted that the council had been successful in securing complementary funding for the Newry City Park project. Declan McAteer (SDLP, Crotlieve) said that the Mournes project provided an opportunity to “build something really special”, and accused Alliance of “coming up with nonsense”. “I don’t understand this type of thinking from people who I would class as amateur politicians, when it comes to something like this – pure amateurs,” he added. “They don’t understand – and I have seen it all along – how council works, and they don’t know how the financial system works in the council. “It is very evident over the last couple of years, and it is disgraceful – it really is.” Cllr Kelly disputed these comments, saying that it is “unfair to call us amateurs, or call other members around this chamber more entitled or qualified than we are as a party”. She reiterated that “we are signing off a blank cheque”, which she described as “entirely outrageous”. Cllr Sharvin said that the blank cheque analogy was “inaccurate and disinformation”, whilst Cllr Hanlon described it as “glib”. Cllr Byrne pointed out that council previously made “a commitment to cover costs over and above £16.1m” in funding it had received to deliver the Newry park. “Alliance backed that, so Alliance can’t come here tonight and say that the exact same process that we are going through here amounts to a blank cheque,” he said. Jill Truesdale (Alliance, Mournes), who is not an SPR Committee member, responded that, based on a £50m cost estimate for the project, “ratepayers will be contributing 40 per cent of this cost”.
“This project is two years behind schedule and the budget is only rising,” she stated. “I understand perfectly how a project board works, but yet I have been told to reconsider my position on the project board, my questions have been called ‘bloody embarrassing’, my scrutiny has been termed as ‘too detailed’. “Alliance will not be found wanting in any respect of scrutiny or due diligence on the cost estimation on the ratepayer of 40 per cent.” Alan Lewis (DUP, Slieve Croob) bemoaned that the committee was “going round and round and round” on an issue that had already been discussed at the project board. “I would perhaps make the point that the problem with that working group is that it is not in a public meeting, therefore there can be no headlines from it,” he added. Mrs Ward said that council officers are “here to deliver on behalf of council”, and have “faced significant criticism and scrutiny in the media, which I would argue on a lot of occasions is inaccurate and wrong”. “Council officers are here to be challenged at project board meetings, council committee meetings and council itself,” she continued. “We provide answers to all questions when asked. “The challenge that we are faced with is, even though we answer the question, we get asked the same questions again repeatedly, and we give the same answers. “The answers that we give are the correct answers. “It is not going to get a different outcome, no matter how many times you ask it.” The chief executive suggested that “we maybe need to look at training, in relation to how project boards operate and how we deliver on capital projects” for newer councillors, and said that the delivery of the Mournes project was being “done in a measured and mannered way”. “What council are being asked to do tonight, and I think it is really important to say – and I have to say it as the chief financial officer of the organisation – is there is absolutely no way we would sit here and ask any councillor to sign a blank cheque,” she stated. “That is wholly wrong, wholly inaccurate and something that definitely should not be out in the public domain. “I would not request the council to do that.” Mrs Ward also stressed that “council has an opportunity at all points within a project to make a decision to change or not to deliver”, and that “the project board will have the opportunity to consider various aspects of that project that can change the costs”. She said that the Mourne Mountains Gateway Project has “been considered of strategic importance for Northern Ireland”, and, on environmental concerns about the scheme, stated that the district’s “real jewel in the crown” is “our areas of outstanding natural beauty, and we simply can’t damage them”. Michael Rice (Sinn Féin, Mournes) voiced concern that “there is a concerted effort to completely derail this project before the facts have been laid bare in front of us”. David Taylor (UUP, Slieve Gullion) said that he was “concerned that we are sitting now at a potential stage of this being scuppered, without actually going through the due processes that are required”. He proposed that a recommendation that council “look at the opportunity of sourcing external funding” for the project’s delivery be added to the report, and this was seconded by Cllr Byrne. The committee rejected Cllr Enright’s proposal by 10 votes to two, and agreed to accept the report’s recommendations, with Cllr Taylor’s addition, by the same margin. The appointment of an integrated consultancy team for the project was also agreed in closed session. These matters will now be tabled for ratification at full council in April.