Waterside Railway Station

Thanking Minister Danny Kennedy for the time he spent talking to the DUP on a visit to the city on Wednesday visit, the DUP MLA Willie Hay said: “We were pleased to meet the Roads Minister and talk to him about a range of issues including roads, footpaths, lighting, the A5 and the old railway station. There has been some good work done by the Roads Service and the Department for Social Development with the Roads Service doing the work and the DSD providing the money.”

He said around £400,000 had been spent on Bonds Street - work which the DUP locally had been lobbying for, for some time.

“They are also doing a fair bit of work at Lincoln Courts where there is a big lighting project and upgrading of the roads and they are now providing car parking at Clooney Terrace where there has been an ongoing problem with traffic congestion particularly in the evenings. We are also looking to see if there is any money for the Caw area and for the upgrading of the footpaths there,” he said.

Mr Hay said the DUP wanted to thank the Minister for his time and for listening to the elected representatives’ concerns, and added: “It has been a long time since that kind of sum has been spent on the Waterside in terms of enhancing areas such as Lincoln Courts or Caw. We talked about so many issues when it came to roads and all this work is on the ground at the moment and there is more to start. It was also good to be involved in open dialogue with the Minister about the old railway station and we are eagerly waiting for the publication of the consultation report being produced by Translink.

“From what we can gather the vast majority of those spoken to as part of the consultation process are in favour of the re-opening of the old rail station and bringing it back to life. We understand an economic appraisal is being done, the results of which are to be made public.”

Mr Hay said the DUP also put a number of other schemes to the minister in connection with the rural hinterland and said the Minister had expressed a desire to return to the city to discuss them.

“In the Waterside not far from £1 million has been spent on road schemes, footpaths and lighting. The DUP was working on this for a year or more and it is the first time that this amount of money has been spent in the Waterside at the one time,” he said.