City of Culture not a priority

CONCERNS have been raised about the spending on the Londonderry City of Culture while Millennium Way in Lurgan has still not been completed due to lack of funding.
By The Newsroom
Published 21st Apr 2012, 13:12 BST

The recent announcement by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness that Londonderry is to be given £12.6 million towards the UK City of Culture Celebrations raised the eyebrows of UUP Councillor Colin McCusker.

Mr McCusker said: “The completion of Millennium Way has been on Lurgan’s agenda for quite some time now, indeed only last week the DUP’s Carla Lockhart was telling us how hard her party were campaigning for its completion.

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“What surprises me is that in the very same week, her party leader announces a £12.6 million Executive donation to help the people of Londonderry celebrate the City of Culture.

“The estimated cost of the completion for Millennium Way is in the region of £7M, and I have to ask the question, what are the priorities for the DUP and Sinn Fein given that £12.6M has been promised for a massive party while the £7M required to complete Millennium Way is not available?

“What or who will benefit in the long-term from this £12.6M investment? How will the benefits of this massive investment be measured in terms of results?”

“I would challenge all the DUP and Sinn Fein representatives for this area to tell the people of Lurgan what their priorities are when it comes to the distribution of funding in Northern Ireland, and do they agree with me that £12.6M could be better spent on infrastructure projects all over Northern Ireland,” he concluded.

Related topics:Carla LockhartDUPSinn Fein