A South Down MLA has welcomed clarification that any proposed alternatives to the Mourne Mountains Gateway Project will not be restricted to a tourism theme.
Andrew McMurray (Alliance) was speaking after he received a response to a written Assembly question on the issue from Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald.
When discussing the matter in Stormont recently, the minister told the chamber that she was encouraging “the identification of alternative projects, irrespective of whether they are in the tourism or innovation sectors,” a statement that led the local MLA to seek further clarity.
The council’s original £44m Slieve Donard gondola proposal — for which £30m Belfast Region City Deal (BRCD) funding had been secured — was killed off in May when the National Trust confirmed that it would “not be considering a lease at Thomas’s Quarry” to facilitate a visitor centre there.
Three months later, Environment Minister Andrew Muir said that he would not support an alternative proposal to relocate the project to Rostrevor’s Kilbroney Forest Park.
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