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Council forced to pay additional £10,000 over planning issues around three NI Centenary stones

These will now be installed at an additional cost of £9,900 but one councillor pointed out: 'It’s all ratepayers’ money, but it’s going from one part of the council’s budget into another part, probably within the same bank account, so we’re not going to get too carried away with the cost'

The Portadown NI centenary stone (main pic) will be positioned beside the war memorial bench. The Loughgall Park NI centenary stone will have to be positioned on the grass, as opposed to the footpath. The Magheralin NI centenary stone will be installed within an existing flower bed at the Newforge/Steps Road junction. All pictures credit: Googleoogle

Alternative locations have had to be found in Portadown, Loughgall and Magheralin for ornamental stones marking the centenary of Northern Ireland due to health and safety and planning issues.

These will now be installed at an additional cost of £9,900.

The matter was discussed at a recent Economic Development meeting of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council.

The relevant agenda item outlined some of the difficulties encountered by council officers, as they sought suitable sites for the commemorative stones: “In December 2020, members agreed the Northern Ireland 2021 Centenary programme, and subsequently agreed to the installation of 15 commemorative stones, at various locations across the borough.

“Following discussions, members requested that the initial three stones be installed at the three civic headquarter buildings.

“Members agreed to the locations for the remaining 12 stones. The installation of the stones is being progressed and two stones have been installed in Lurgan and Dromore.

“Due to location-specific considerations with three of the remaining stones, new locations have been suggested in Loughgall, Portadown and Magheralin.

“The cost of the purchase of the stones was £2,925, which has already been paid to the supplier. It was previously agreed to install the stones using in-house resources for council-owned sites.

“Given the nature of the various alternative sites, there are additional costs associated with the installation of the stones, with the revised locations estimated at £8,400 and previously agreed by council.

“However, as nine locations are not on council land, permitted development is not applicable and planning applications for each stone have been made at a cost of £990 each.

“The total cost is £9,900, with the Portadown location required to be submitted to Planning twice, given the change in location. These costs will be absorbed within existing budget lines.”

In Loughgall Park, the NI commemorative stone will be installed within the grassed area, close to the reception, as opposed to the pedestrian footpath.

The Loughgall NI centenary stone will have to be positioned on the grass, as opposed to the footpath. Credit: Google

Likewise, the Magheralin ornamental stone will be installed within an existing flower bed at the Newforge/Steps Road junction, and not on the footpath.

In Portadown, the stone will be located beside the war memorial bench. In all three cases, this is to prevent members of the public tripping on the stones.

Sinn Fein Cllr Kevin Savage asked at the meeting: “Should we not have been aware of these costs last year when the report came to committee?

“These centenary stones have come to the committee quite often, I thought it was done and dusted. I know most of them have been through planning as well, so in terms of that £9,900, as these applications are already sorted, is it just retrospective funding?”

Regeneration officer, Rosemary Hughes explained: “The £9,900 are for the planning applications. All the planning applications have not gone through, there’s still one that has to go through.

“These amounts have been paid through a transfer from one department to another department. The original amount that was previously asked for was £8,400. That was for the installation.

“The reason why we had asked [for funding] previously for the installation is because these sites don’t belong to the council, so our maintenance teams don’t work on private land.

“So we had requested at that stage that we bring in a company in order to do the installation for these. We went out to procurement and have procured an engineering company in order to install these for us.”

The Magheralin NI centenary stone will be installed within an existing flower bed at the Newforge/Steps Road junction. Credit: Google

Cllr Kevin Savage wanted to make sure that all planning issues had been sorted out in relation to the Portadown location.

“Just one final question in terms of applications going forward,” he added. “Are we content that there’s no further issues with DfI regarding the planning process, and that they are content with these and will not have the Portadown one coming back again, because they weren’t happy with it?”

The council officer replied: “After what happened with the Portadown site, we made contact again with DfI.

“We have been liaising with them all along and we had hoped that they would have been a wee bit more agreeable with the plaza site, but unfortunately the plaza is extremely busy and it can be a wee bit crowded if we’re holding events, so we do need to be extra careful there.

“The one that still hasn’t gone through, we spoke with DfI last week with regards to it and they’ve said that they have no issue with it, so we don’t expect there to be any further problems.”

DUP Cllr Lavelle McIlwrath thanked the council officer and her team and added: “This has been a wee bit protracted and there’s been a fair bit of work around this, so we appreciate the effort that you’ve put in and the team.

“I’m happy to propose the additional funding that’s brought before us here tonight.”

Party colleague Alderman Mark Baxter pointed out that ratepayers would not actually have to meet any additional cost.

He said: “Nobody envisaged we’d be here four years after the centenary and still talking about it. It’s unfortunate we’re there, we are where we are, we’ve had the planning issues.

“But I think it’s probably worth highlighting that these are planning applications, so it’s ‘wooden dollars’ – it’s from one department to another. It only cost us officers’ time, planners’ time.

“It’s all ratepayers’ money, but it’s going from one part of the council’s budget into another part, probably within the same bank account, so we’re not going to get too carried away with the cost.

“Whilst it’s unfortunate we’re here, I think we need to be mindful of that. I’m very happy to second the proposal, and it’ll be good to see these eventually in place before the next centenary.”

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