Murphy Allays A5 Corridor Concerns

Northern Ireland's Transport Minister Conor Murphy has addressed concerns raised by landowners affected by the A5 Western Transport Corridor scheme.

Speaking during a meeting with local representatives Tom Elliott and Jim Nicholson, the Minister also discussed developments on the preferred route announced in July, and said that detailed design work is progressing well.

Roads Service and consultants Mouchel have listened to concerns from the public first hand and are continuing to have a series of one to one meetings with the affected landowners which should be completed by the end of October.

"Currently we are gathering information from the landowners on land use and livestock and machinery movements," said Mr Murphy.

"Most landowners have been helpful in giving ground investigation contractors access to their land to carry out tests."

He said this information will by key in helping the designers reduce landtake, mitigate the impacts on land owners, reduce the footprint of the dual carriageway and help assess the suitability of alternative alignments.

"Maintaining access to all areas of their land is essential. Minor realignments of the route are already being considered in response to the information being provided," added the minister.

Over 5,400 people attended public consultation events on the A5 scheme. There will be a second series of meetings in December and January, where proposals for accommodation works and mitigation measures will be presented to landowners.

This will be followed by a third series of meetings, to be held in spring 2010, where maps confirming the area of ground to be vested will be provided.

The amount of compensation for land will be assessed by valuers from Land and Property Services independently, the Department of Regional Development has said.

"Landowners' rights and interests are protected by legislation and the Lands Tribunal will adjudicate if agreement cannot be reached," added a spokesman.

(PR/GK)