Details of comments made by members of the public at a council information day about the controversial Slieve Donard gondola were not shared with the elected representatives who will ultimately decide whether the project proceeds.
The revelation comes as Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (NMDDC) plans to hold a second ‘public engagement event’ this coming Thursday.
At the previous March 2023 event in Newcastle, members of the public completed comment sheets provided by the council. They were not asked if they were in favour or against the gondola but it is understood many used the opportunity to highlight their opposition.
The council plans to build a cable car to a visitors’ centre 250m above sea level at a disused quarry on the slopes of Ulster’s highest mountain.
It will cost at least £50m, according to officials from the Department for the Economy, with £30m provided through the Belfast Region City Deal and the remainder of the costs met by ratepayers.
There is significant local opposition to the plan, with an online petition urging the council to ditch the project attracting more than 4,000 signatures.
Alliance councillor Jill Truesdale, a member of the council-appointed board overseeing the so-called Mourne Gateway, said she had concerns that information about the project was not being made available to elected representatives “in a timely and comprehensive manner”.
“It is not appropriate for an elected representative to be denied answers to pertinent questions on vast capital spends as we move into rate setting sessions,” she told The Irish News. NMDDC said “feedback from all previous consultations” and minutes of relevant meetings had been shared with councillors.
The Newcastle representative also voiced concern about the council’s reluctance to share the public’s comments on the project in a comprehensive manner.
“Given the high level of local opposition to this project and the numbers who attended the information day to register their objection, I was amazed that this was not reflected in any way in the summary of public comments presented by the council,” she said.
The council said a “summary” of comments received at the information day had been presented to councillors in October last year in the form of a an infographic that had been “developed to respond to comments and queries raised”.
More than six months ago it said that the same infographic would be published on its website but when The Irish News asked to view it, the council said it was “currently being developed into a more extensive series of questions and answers” and would “shortly be made available”.
Andy Carden of the Mourne Gateway Information Group, whose Freedom of Information request established that his and other members of the public’s comments from the March 2023 event had not been shared with councillors, said he found it “incredible” that opposition to the projects was “effectively ignored”.
“I and many people I know went along to this event to voice our opposition yet there was no record of this being passed to councillors,” he said.
“The council’s approach seems to defeat the purpose of the exercise. There seems to be a blinkered determination to push ahead with this plan regardless of what ratepayers think.”
Councillors backing the project have defended the council’s approach.
Sinn Féin’s Oonagh O’Hanlon said feedback from the information day had been presented to the relevant councillors “in line with standard practice for all capital projects of this nature”.
“Sinn Féin welcome that the upcoming public engagement sessions will ensure that feedback will be collated following the appointment of the new ICT (integrated consultancy team) team and we expect this to be shared publicly,” she said.
The SDLP’s Gareth Sharvin encouraged people to attend Thursday’s second information day in order to “have their say”.
He said the infographic shown to councillors provided a “high level overview of feedback and key questions from the day”.
:: The Mourne Gateway information day takes place this Thursday November 7 at O’Hare’s in Newcastle from 1-8pm.
