‘Finance Minister must provide bridge money certainty’ – Bradley

SDLP Assembly Member for Newry and Armagh Dominic Bradley MLA has said that the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson must take the lead from his departmental officials who said they are conscious of the need for a decision to be made promptly on the funding for the Narrow Water Bridge project.

Bradley was commenting on the contents of a letter received by the Assembly Finance Committee this week.

Speaking to Newry Times about the situation Bradley said, “The Narrow Water Bridge Project has already attracted £13million of European Funds and is awaiting a decision by Mr Wilson on £2.7million of match funding from the Department of Finance.”

“The Project has been approved by the INTERREG 4A Steering Committee and has been granted planning permission by Environment Ministers, North and South. This is a key infrastructure development, not just in terms of road infrastructure but in tourism development.

“This project will create many jobs during construction and has the potential to give a real impetus to the tourism industry in this region. This project is every bit as important to the tourism offering of this region as the Titanic Quarter is to Belfast or the City of Culture programme is to Derry.”

Bradley added, “A lot of time and energy has been invested in getting this project designed and approved; it has vital support from Europe and now we need our Finance Minister to give the certainty which is needed and release the money required.”

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Posted by Newry Times News on Feb 22 2013. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry