Dallat: SF share blame on NW infrastructure

The announcement that Martin McGuinness is returning to Foyle to focus on the infrastructure of the North West will be taken with a pinch of salt by the electorate who know that Sinn Fein and the DUP held the purse strings of the Assembly for the last decade and allowed capital projects to be cherry-picked, with the lion's share of the roads money spent just about anywhere except the NW.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th Jan 2016, 19:45 BST
Updated 27th Jan 2016, 19:59 BST
The single carriageway Moneynick Rd on the A6, which John Dallat fears might be the only upgraded section of the Belfast to Londonderry routeThe single carriageway Moneynick Rd on the A6, which John Dallat fears might be the only upgraded section of the Belfast to Londonderry route
The single carriageway Moneynick Rd on the A6, which John Dallat fears might be the only upgraded section of the Belfast to Londonderry route

It would be wrong to blame Mr McGuinness entirely for past failures.

For part of that time his esteemed colleague in Foyle Raymond McCartney sat on the Regional Development Committee and defended the inaction of the SF minister Conor Murphy in decoupling the Dungiven bypass so that it could proceed as an instalment of the A6 project.

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The same SF minister refused to fund the Magilligan-Greencastle Ferry because it went to ‘another jurisdiction’.

Ironically the Derry-Belfast railway got the go ahead but only after the Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy took over from Mr Murphy and found £46 million for the loop line to allow an hourly service. Today I am told Translink don’t have the money to run an hourly service.

Over the next four years a mere five miles of the A6 may be upgraded if the money is available from future block grants but it is a long way from Randalstown to Derry as every truck driver knows and it is unacceptable that this will continue into the future well after Martin has left the stage.

I think it would be premature to kill the fatted calf to celebrate what SF have described as the return of the prodigal son who spent the loot other places and now realises there is a rising tide of discontent that the NW continued to be neglected by an Executive under his leadership.

John Dallat, MLA East Londonderry

Related topics:Martin McGuinnessConor MurphyJohn DallatNorth WestFoyleSinn FeinDUP