Hannon reportwas '˜balancedand accurate'

Several councillors raised concerns at last month’s monthly council meeting about how the approval of a new route might affect existing public services and agreed that the local authority writes to the Department for Infrastructure expressing these misgivings.

Subsequently, Owen McLaughlin, Hannon Coach’s group marketing manager, wrote to the council to complain that, in his view, the information provided to councillors had been “lacking in detail and clarity”.

However, at the council’s Environment and Regeneration Committee meeting on Wednesday, the local authority’s Director of Environment and Regeneration, Karen Phillips, advising members of the correspondence, said the information placed before last month’s meeting had been based entirely on that received from DI, which had been seeking councillors’ views.

Ms. Phillips advised that the city and district solicitor, Mr. Kingston, has since responded to the County Antrim bus firm advising that he was content the information placed before council had been “balanced and accurate”.

DI has yet to make a decision on whether or not to approve the new route.