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March 2025 Update: Rising costs; Toxic Waste; Health and Safety risks to residents?
MARCH 2025 UPDATE:
Rising costs; Toxic Waste; Health and Safety risks to residents?
Our last update was August 2024 however since then, in September, the news was announced that the plug had been pulled on Casement Park being developed for use in Euro 2028:
We now are into early Spring 2025 with Casement Park still well short of the funding required for a 34,500 size stadium. In recent weeks there has been a flurry of media activity surrounding the comments of GAA president, Jarlath Burns, stating that the GAA “was operating in a very hostile environment” :
Communities Minister, Gordon Lyons reacted to deny those allegations:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/communities-minister-rejects-assessment-hostile-163746475.html?guccounter=
Gordon Lyons also recently revealed that £17M had been spent so far on Casement Park
Fact or Fiction:
There has also been released a breakdown of costs up to the end of 2021-22, which has appeared on social media in recent days. On checking the link below you will see, further details, of these costs. Included within that social media platform, is the question which asks, why DCAL are paying GAA representatives wages?
https://twitter.com/FactsIre/status/1895257783983051075
That link above, on the social media platform X, states that those figures are to the year ending 2022. The years 2023 &2024 are not accounted for. If the Ulster Council Gaelic Athletic Association (UCGAA) wages are still being paid, those spend amounts could be further increased. However without a breakdown of the £17M figure which Gordon Lyons recently announced, the general public do not know if those wages are continuing to be paid by DCAL.
There has been further expenditure incurred in the period from the end of 2022. This was the expense involved to relocate the Casement Social Club into the former St. Agnes parish centre and estimated to be £2,000,000. Again the public do not know if that £2m is also included in that £17m expense announced by Gordon Lyons.
It has also been reported previously on this site, the cost to excavate and remove the toxic waste within the old stadium site before any building work would ever commence. This was first reported to be in excess of £32M by Irish News reporter during a Radio Ulster interview …..
On the 12th June 2024 Declan Bogue a Sports journalist during an interview on Good Morning Ulster on Radio Ulster made a statement that there would now be a cost of over £32M, just to clear the site of the huge amount of toxic waste before any type of building work could commence.
Furthermore as there is nowhere in N Ireland to safely dump this toxic waste, it has to be transported and shipped to Scotland. It has been estimated this would involve over 16.000 container lorry loads to complete that work. That being the case if it ever reaches this stage, there will have been in excess of £50M spent before any stadium can be built on this site .
That £50M could be further increased if the rising building cost from the “constructionwave” website predictions outlined in the link below are now factored in. Their report basically states…….”Building costs will increase by 17 per cent, while tender prices will rise by 19 per cent…...forecast shows new work output, which has been contracting since mid-2023, is expected to grow by 21 per cent over the forecast period”
https://constructionwave.co.uk/2025/01/16/bcis-forecasts-building-cost-increase/
The original cost of the stadium was calculated to be £77M, now well below latest estimates from the British Government in their communication to Gordon Lyons in September 2024. That announcement also quoted the estimated cost to now being over £400M.
With, in excess of 17M of money spent already , plus the £32M + required to remove the toxic waste now having to be, spent before any building work can begin, will mean in excess of £50M.Needless to say this does not leave too much of the £62.5M of public funding first allocated by the Stormont executive in 2011.
Perhaps it is well overdue to examine the business case of the Casement Park project and question if it represents value for money to the taxpayer?
Dangers to Health and Safety when Toxic waste is disturbed:
Whilst apart from the Declan Bogue interview on Radio Ulster last June 2024, there have been virtually no other media reports or articles concerning the toxic waste site on which the old Casement Park stadium was built. This subject has been well documented within various articles and updates on this website.
It is about time this matter is now fully exposed to the public because there is a sad history of how the Health and Safety of many have been affected through removal of toxic waste.
The residents and families living in West Belfast and beyond have the right to know and be more fully informed of potential dangers, if and when the toxic waste would be exposed to the atmosphere , when excavated and disturbed.
Those fears are fully justified, when we consider the history of issues that have arisen, when excavating and disturbing toxic waste. Probably one of the most shocking and very disturbing case is that which took place in Corby around forty years ago. This involved a court case against the local council taken by those people whose lives were greatly impacted. That case took a long time and only was settled in 2009. The Corby case is now the subject of a new film documentary on Netflix.
The Corby case, along with some other reports are described in the links below……..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corby_toxic_waste_case
Netflix film links…..
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/tv/netflixs-toxic-town-true-story-31105489
“He was born Navy Blue “……
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2pzl605kzo
Barrister representing Corby residents: “ Quizzing mums over toxic waste…..”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crg7zgj4xy2o
Derbyshire residents complain…..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-68310418
Welsh Quarry Ty Llyd toxic concerns…..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64333538
Amnesty International : Trafigura A Toxic Journey………
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/04/trafigura-a-toxic-journey/
Unesco World Heritage Site……
These mistakes of the past involving toxic waste should never be repeated and least of all when using taxpayer’s money in these times of extreme austerity.
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Stadiums Affect People 