Beggs welcomes PAC Independent assessment questioning A5 project and its recommendations to remove the Aughnacloy to Ballygawley section from the project, but disappointment at DoI response
Roy Beggs MLA said, the Planning Appeals Commissions Interim Report has recommended the removal of the A5 dualing scheme from Aughnacloy to Ballygawley. It is disappointing that the Minister and Department have not accepted the interim recommendations but wish to continue this unaffordable, unjustifiable, environmentally damaging road scheme
Recommendations:
4.192 I recommend the Department:-
a) to remove Phase 3 from the scheme;
b) to review the phasing of the remainder of the scheme and set out in a public document clear reasons for its decisions;
c) to give priority to those parts of the scheme which offer the greatest net benefits when assessed against its stated aim and objectives; and d) before deciding to proceed with any part of the scheme, to ensure that ring-fenced funding is available for that part.
Those who wish to damage the natural environment by building a virtual motorway in a location without significant traffic are without environmental principles. This is a politically driven project, which since the removal of the RoI £400m subsidiary is clearly unaffordable. Surely we should be investing our limited capital expenditure wisely and avoiding unnecessary damage to the local environment.
Nationalists express concern at consideration of Boris’s Bridge. This phase 3 of the A5 is something we should have much greater concerns about as £100m’s of our limited capital funding could actually be committed. Surely investment in the A4 upgrades is much more important to the West?
