An electric shuttle bus plan for Newry’s council staff could be hit with a shocking new price tag amid a Stormont department’s public commute demands.
The Department for Infrastructure has requested a significant change on the NI planning portal to the council’s staff only shuttle bus from a new employee car park at Cecil Street to the future civic hub at Abbey Way.
The department has now requested the bus to be for both council staff and members of the public and be every 20 minutes from 8am to 6pm. It is a major move from the council’s staff only plans of a bus operation of 8am-10am and 4pm-6pm.
The DfI recommendation reads: “Whilst Dfi Roads has no objection in principle to the revised application, the submitted documents do not provide sufficient detail to demonstrate how the use of public transport will be used to adequately facilitate the transfer of both public and staff from the new civic hub to car parking at Cecil Street (Newry Leisure Centre), which is being put forward as parking opportunity.
“On this basis, should council planning be minded to approve the application the department would require the following conditions to be included. The shuttle bus service to and from the new civic hub to car parking at Cecil Street to operate between 0800 to 18.00 during hours of operation on a regular basis (every 20min) to include transfer of both staff and members of the public.”
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (NMDDC) had also planned to use the electric powered shuttle bus in cooperation with Southern Regional College, with both organisations having employees at Greenbank Industrial Estate on the Warrenpoint Road. The intention is understood to commute staff into the city centre.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) asked the council if DfI’s recommendation would hike its proposed civic centre budget, with UK electric single decker buses costing approximately £400k each and the potential need to now have more than one vehicle.
A NMDDC spokesperson said: “The planning application you refer to is currently live within the planning process and it would not be appropriate to make comment. Where concerns exist on the matter of car parking, the most appropriate place to raise them would be through the formal planning process.”
The spokesperson added: “The business case for the proposed Cecil Street carpark is currently under development and will be presented to councillors for consideration at a future programme board in the first instance.
“Any decisions on the business case will be presented for decision to a future strategy policy and resources committee (SPR) meeting, as it is the SPR committee that is the statutory committee for decision making on such matters. Minutes from the SPR meeting are sent to full council for ratification.”
