Newry Ice Rink for Christmas on a slippery slope

A Newry Christmas ice rink could be “pulled out of the bag” this week amid concerns of “shocking” council delays on a winter wonderland season for the city.

The ambitious skating experience has been requested by the organisers of the Newry Christmas Market, which was launched for the first time last year.

The council has been heavily criticised in the chamber (Nov 2) as it has failed to match up to a neighbouring local authority’s quick turnaround for a similar application.

Newry SDLP councillor Killian Feehan said: “We’re going back a couple of months now when I had reached out to the organiser of Newry Christmas Market, to provide support.

“I became aware that we were looking to put on an ice rink on Hill Street and that has been sitting with the council for, I think, coming on six weeks now.

“It is very disappointing at just the lack of urgency or any sort of commitment from senior management at the council on this.

“The complete lack of progress or any interest from senior management of the council and assistant in progressing, this has been shocking.”

The Christmas Market in Newry was the brainchild of Noelle Markey, owner of local events business Room Angelz, who wanted to make the most of the city’s historic 17th-century market venue to host something unlike Newry has seen before.

The success of last year’s first ever event has given the organiser the backing to broaden the Christmas experience beyond the walls of the old market stalls onto Newry’s traditional shopping area.

Councillor Feehan added: ”I would have thought, perhaps naively on reflection, that this is something that the council would have jumped on, but we’re six weeks on and no further along really.

“Just for reference a neighbouring council was approached in the same vein and they had permission and approval turned around within a week.

“So there’s something wrong with how this kind of request and process is managed. I would like to see it, but I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to see it on Hill Street this year.

“I’d love to see it pulled out of the bag at this late stage, I’m not overly optimistic about it, but I would love to be proven wrong.”

The chamber heard the other council giving permission for an ice rink was Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon.

The delays in Newry were identified as being due to multiple locations requested as well as consultation with PSNI and the Department for Infrastructure.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands a synthetic rink could be placed close to the councils’ Christmas tree on Marcus Square in the middle of Hill Street.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council CEO, Marie Ward responded: “The applicant has been in engagement with the council officers.

“It is going through a licensing process. I have said that we will work to try and get that completed this week.

“But just to advise people that the applicant had looked for land use across different parts of the district, and we’ve worked through those processes to get to the point we’re at today.

“I have already given a commitment that the applicant would get an answer this week on this.

“It goes through a consultation process, and we can’t forgo that process. We are actually out to consultation with DfI, PSNI, and businesses.

“So we will be working on it and we hope to have an answer for the applicant as soon as possible.”