Kennedy was powerless over A5 road: UUP man
Executive Ministers Edwin Poots, deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, First Minister Peter Robinson and Danny Kennedy pictured at the announcement of a major �583million roads and hospitals capital investment project at Stormont Castle today. The key upgrades will create or safeguard around 3,000 jobs over the next four years. Photo M T Hurson/Harrisons
A VETERAN Ulster Unionist councillor has said that last week’s announcement of a multi-million pound upgrade of the A5 road shows his party’s powerlessness in the Executive.
Craigavon Alderman Arnold Hatch said that despite UUP roads minister Danny Kennedy approving the decision, he should not be held accountable for it as it had really been agreed between the DUP and Sinn Fein.
Mr Hatch said that his party had to just “grin and bear” the controversial road project, something which he claimed was part of a “united Ireland by road” strategy from Martin McGuinness.
The long-standing alderman stressed that he was not attacking Mr Kennedy and said that he believed he had little influence over the decision at the Executive table where there had been a “carve-up” between the DUP and Sinn Fein.
Last week Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness announced that they had agreed a massive investment package in infrastructure which included the building of two stretches of the controversial road scheme for £330 million.
Of the five executive parties, the Ulster Unionists have been most vocal in opposing what they claimed was an unnecessary and political road project to link Donegal and Dublin by cutting through the west of Northern Ireland.
However, Mr Kennedy, who is now the party’s sole minister and attends joint pre-Executive meetings with DUP ministers, last week welcomed the announcement on the grounds that some of the money for other sections of the A5 had been re-directed to other road schemes.
Last night Mr Hatch told the News Letter: “This was a deal done between the two major parties.”
Asked about Mr Kennedy’s role in the decision, Mr Hatch said: “I’m not criticising him, because I don’t think it was down to him — it’s just like the SDLP who are in the same position with the Review of Public Administration, where they want 15 councils but will have to accept what the DUP and Sinn Fein want.
“I hope that at some stage it gets so blatant that it draws it to the attention of higher powers and raises the question of whether an opposition or whatever can be formed because we can’t just go on manipulating things between the two sides.”
Mr Hatch said that he was “open minded” about the merits of the UUP going into opposition, something which he said had “pros and cons”.
He said that the £350 million spent on the A5 could have been used to upgrade the Portadown-Armagh road, something which he said the party’s councillors in Armagh have been asking to be built for more than 30 years.
He said that road carries more than 14,000 vehicles a day, more than double that of the A5.
Last week Mr Kennedy said of the roads announcement: “I am confident that today’s announcement will be welcomed across the board.”
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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