The council has said it is ‘not in a position to provide any further comment’ on its plan to relocate the Mourne Mountains Gateway Project to Kilbroney Park.
On 28 May, the local authority announced that its bid to retain £30m of Belfast Region City Deal (BRCD) funding for the district is now focused on effectively transplanting the cable car scheme from Newcastle, its planned original location, to Rostrevor.
Over the next two days, the Mourne Observer sent a series of questions on the new gondola vision to the council. Further clarification was sought on a number of issues, including when the prospect of relocating the project to Rostrevor was first mooted, what processes the council had gone through before making the announcement, if it is envisaged the cost of the relocated project would increase or decrease, and how the concept of placing major infrastructure at Kilbroney Park could be reconciled with difficulties faced in achieving planning permission for replacement soccer and GAA pitches there.
The council did not respond in time for last week’s edition, which went to print on Tuesday 3 June; however, three days later, it sent a brief reply, which read: ‘Newry, Mourne and Down District Council issued a statement on 28 May 2025 to the media in relation to this matter, we continue to work through the detail with our partners and are not in a position to provide any further comment at this time.’
The Department for the Economy confirmed last week that it was first informed of the Kilbroney Park proposal on 9 May, just eight days after the National Trust ruled out the provision of a lease that would’ve allowed Newcastle’s Donard Park to be linked to Thomas’s Quarry by gondola.
The department said that it had not had sight of a business case or any detail regarding the cost of the new proposal, though added that ‘the BRCD partners have agreed to afford council time and space to develop a new proposal’.
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