Regional Development 30 September 2013

Car Parking, land-vesting the A5 road development and street Lighting featured heavily in the Oral Questions posed to the Minister for Regional Development, Danny Kennedy.

£60 million has been expended on the A5 project to date but the Minister told the House that this project has been delayed, not abandoned and stated that is it an Executive priority.

Farmers have lost the use of land and buildings for over a year now.  Not only have they not received any compensation but no one has come near them to assess the losses incurred.  Is that acceptable? That was a question from Mr Irwin this afternoon to the Minister for Regional Development.

Car Parking and The ParkMobile system was an interesting section of question time today. The ParkMobile system was first piloted in Belfast in 2011.  By 2012, usage was at 4%, and by 2013, that had more than doubled to 9%.  Therefore, just shy of one in 10 of all payments in Belfast is now being made through the ParkMobile system.  The system was introduced throughout Northern Ireland in November 2012, and usage was around 4%. The Minister hopes that that will increase over the next 12 months, as was the case in Belfast.