No money in the budget for M1/Maze link road says minister

The minister said: “I understand that this proposal is linked to the development of the Maze site and may be delivered and funded by the new Development Corporation being established by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM).

“Officials in my Department’s Roads Service have been involved in early advisory meetings with OFMDFM and DFP officials. At this stage, Roads Service has not received any firm proposals in relation to any infrastructure for the Maze site.

“Roads Service, as a consultee to DOE Planning, is required to consider the design of any infrastructure that is to be formally adopted by it.”

The minister was responding to a wirtten question from TUV MLA Jim Allister who said he was surprised “after all the hype about Balmoral Show moving to the Maze site in less than a year and the building of a ‘Conflict Tranformation Centre’ there”.

Mr Allister said: “With all this resting with dysfunctional OFMDFM, no one should expect progress any time soon. The snail’s pace at which OFMDFM operates compares only to the snails pace at which traffic will move to the new show site along the existing substandard roads servicing the site.

“It is so typical of OFMDFM that it talks grandly about headline-grabbing projects but doesn’t get round to dealing with the fundamentals essential to their delivery.

Mr Allister added: “With no money in the Budget for a motorway link, it seems to me that a viable Balmoral Show site at the Maze remains a long way off.”