Email Hilary Benn to Scrap the Mourne Gateway Project

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn MP has the power to scrap the Mourne Gateway Project from the Belfast Region City Deal. Last month, he paused two other City Deals in NI and is looking at cutting projects in other deals in order to save money from the public purse.

This is a unique opportunity for us to put pressure on Hilary Benn to scrap the Mourne Gateway Project. We have created an easy to use email action which allows you to easily send an email to Hilary Benn's inbox. If hundreds of us send an email, we can flood Hilary Benn's inbox and show the strong public opposition to the project - he'll have no option but to scrap the project.

Send your email below - it only takes a minute!

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<div>Dear Hilary Benn MP,</div>
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<div>I am writing to you to scrap the Mourne Gateway Project from the Belfast Region City Deal. As a local resident in the Newry Mourne and Down District Council area, I am surprised and saddened that the pause seems to have been lifted on the Mourne Gateway Project. Here are reasons for why the project should be scrapped:</div>
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<li><strong>Flawed business plan: </strong>The business plan is said by the council to be based on 350,000 users per year. Given that this is a fair weather attraction in order to see a view and subject to closure by bad weather, this figure is impossible to achieve. Escalating building, maintenance and running costs would be ruinous for the council.<br><br></li>
<li><strong>Traffic congestion problem: </strong>In good weather Newcastle already has huge traffic and parking problems which would be made far worse by and for people trying to reach the proposed gondola. A park and ride scheme would not solve this.<br><br></li>
<li><strong>Opposition from the National Trust:</strong> The National Trust owns the quarry where the visitors centre is to be located. It also owns the fragile heathland slopes of the mountains around and above the quarry, which are protected as a Special Area of Conservation and an Area of Special Scientific Interest. The Glen River itself is included in these designations. The National Trust has no wish for this project to go ahead and will I believe say no in the end if the project is not halted by some other means, as they did with the similar funicular plan in 1996.  </li>
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<div><br>I believe there are alternatives to the gondola project that can improve access to the Mournes without causing irreversible damage to the mountains and wildlife. The <a href="https://www.mountaineering.ie/_files/1-Mountaineering-Ireland-Mourne-Gateway-Submission---April-2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mountaineering Ireland submission </a>outlines how this could be done, providing genuine gateways to the Mournes. <a href="https://www.beyondthetreesavondale.com/">The Avondale Beyond The Trees project</a> in County Wicklow is also a model to consider.</div>
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<div>There is tremendous local opposition to this project: Local opposition group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/mournegatewayinfogroup">Mourne Gateway Info Group page</a> on Facebook has over 1300 members and the<a href="https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/no-gondola-in-the-mourne-mountains"> Stop the Mourne Mountains Gondola Project petition has over 3700 signatories</a>. As the number of signatures show, any genuine public consultation on the project will show huge public opposition and protest from residents in the council area. </div>
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<div><strong>As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, I ask you to use your power to scrap this deeply unpopular and costly project. </strong></div>

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