Murphy welcomes doubling of Roads Budget in Newry, Mourne & Down

Newry MLA Conor Murphy has welcomed news that the 2016/2017 budget for roads maintenance in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area will more than doubled from the 2015 allocation.

The news was announced by new Sinn Féin Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard.

Murphy said he was delighted that Hazzard had wasted no time in living up to Sinn Féin’s commitment to tackle the state of the area’s roads. “We’ve already seen other Sinn Féin Ministers make immediate impacts in their new roles and I’m delighted to see Chris continue that trend with this announcement, which is a bold statement of intent.

“This was a commitment Chris made in his first few weeks as Minister, recognising the deplorable state of roads across the north.

“His assurance that this will not be a one off and he will continue to identify and prioritise structural maintenance schemes and look to secure additional funding from the Department of Finance will also be most welcome.

“Road maintenance in the district is a huge issue that not only causes annoyance residents and damage to cars but has a huge impact on road safety itself.”

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Newry Councillor Charlie Casey said the announcement was a very welcome one. “A major reason the roads fell into disrepair here was because of a lack of basic maintenance so it will come as a huge relief to residents that Sinn Féin has wasted no time in tackling the toxic legacy left in this area by former Roads Minister Danny Kennedy,” he said.

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Posted by Newry Times News on Jun 28 2016. Filed under Community, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry