Committee for Infrastructure

Minutes of proceedings - Wednesday 22 Janaury 2025

Committee for Infrastructure minutes of proceedings 22 January 2025.pdf (195.18 kb)

Meeting Location: Room 29, Parliament Buildings

Present:

Mrs Deborah Erskine MLA(Chairperson)

Mr John Stewart MLA (Deputy Chairperson)

Mr Cathal Boylan MLA

Mr Keith Buchanan MLA

Mr Stephen Dunne MLA

Mr Peter McReynolds MLA

Mr Andrew McMurray MLA

Via Teleconference:

Mr Danny Baker MLA

Mr Mark Durkan MLA

Apologies:

None.

In Attendance:

Ms Barbara Love (Assembly Clerk)

Mr Phil Pateman (Assistant Assembly Clerk)

Mr Jonathan Lawless (Clerical Supervisor)

Mr William Kinnear (Clerical Officer)

The meeting commenced in open session at 10:03 am.

1. Apologies

As above.

2. Declaration of Interests

Mrs Deborah Erskine MLA declared an interest as having family members who own land along the route of the A5.

3. Chairperson’s Business

The Chairperson reminded members of the Committee consideration of the Termination of the Vehicle Testing Equipment Contract – Driver and Vehicle Agency.

Agreed: To write to the Minister for Infrastructure to request an update on the current position of the ongoing legal proceedings.

4. Draft Minutes

Agreed: The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday, 15 January 2025.

5. Matters Arising

The Committee considered the scheduling of oral evidence from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and Northern Ireland Water.

Agreed: That the Clerk engages with officials from the NIEA and Northern Ireland Water to establish their availability for providing oral evidence.

Agreed: That Committee staff explore if any other Committee has received evidence, either oral or written, from Northern Ireland Water and to request details of the evidence.

Agreed: To write to the Department to ascertain why the Committee has not received notification of the consultation on the use of bus lanes to alleviate traffic congestion in Belfast.

6. Correspondence

Correspondence from a member of the public regarding yellow traffic boxes in Belfast.

Agreed: To write to the individual advising that the Committee does not deal with individual cases and that he may wish to write to the Department for Infrastructure for a response to the issues raised.

Correspondence from a member of the public regarding a complaint in respect of the Northern Ireland Planning Portal.

Correspondence from the Committee for Finance regarding the draft Executive Budget for 2025-26 and the Budget Sustainability Plan.

Agreed: To schedule oral evidence in the coming weeks from the Department for Infrastructure on its requirements for the Draft Budget for 2025-26.

The Committee considered the Written Ministerial Statement on the January Monitoring Round from the Minister of Finance.

Agreed: To write to the Department for Infrastructure seeking an urgent response on:

the circumstances that leads it to believe that the ‘Bear judgement’ on holiday pay will be crystallised during this financial year and reasons for its omission from the written and oral evidence;

How the allocation of £13.6 million capital received from the monitoring exercise will be used to manage the identified pressures including any impact on other areas of inescapable pressure highlighted by the Department.

The Committee noted the following items of correspondence:

Correspondence from the Department for Infrastructure regarding the decision to change the exhaust emission test for modern light diesel vehicles.
Copy of correspondence from the Committee for the Economy to the Department for Infrastructure regarding the business case for the extension of the Translink Nightmovers service.

7. Review of Residents’ Parking – Department for Infrastructure – Oral Evidence

Mr Andrew McMurray left the meeting at 10:21 am.

The following Departmental officials joined the meeting at 10:21 am:

David Porter, Director of Engineering;
Stephen Hughes, Head of Engineering; and
Laura Ervine, Head of Transport Policy.

Mr Andrew McMurray re-joined the meeting at 10:22 am.

The Departmental officials provided the Committee with an overview of the Review of Residents’ Parking.

The evidence session was reported by Hansard.

Agreed: To write to DFI seeking:

An overview of the roads/towns by constituency where applications have been submitted to the Department for a residents’ parking scheme to be developed;
DfI’s assessment of the number of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) issued within the Rugby Road parking since the commencement of the scheme including those paid, challenged and successfully appealed; and
An overview of the key stages and associated timescales for developing a residents parking scheme including the number of opportunities for those impacted to express their views.

The Chairperson thanked the Departmental officials for their briefing.

The Departmental officials left the meeting at 11:27 am.

8. Compensation for agricultural land owners affected by construction of new roads in Northern Ireland – RaISe – Oral Evidence

The researcher joined the meeting at 11:34 am via teleconference:

Des McKibbin, Assembly Research and Information Service.

The researcher provided the Committee with an overview of Compensation for agricultural land owners affected by construction of new roads in Northern Ireland.

The researcher undertook to examine the provisions under the Land Acquisition and Compensation (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2016.

The Chairperson thanked the researcher for his briefing.

The researcher left the meeting at 11:57 am.

Agreed: To forward the RaISe paper to the Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for information.

Agreed: To write to LPS seeking further details on:

how it assesses whether properties would be eligible for a Certificate of Alternative Development’;and
the process for assessing the value of agricultural property and what impact this has on the value and access to comparable land in areas that will be subject to compulsory purchase

Agreed: To write to the Institute of Charter Surveyors to establish what qualifications, if any, are required when undertaking the role of a land agent for compulsory purchase and the number of land agents/chartered surveyors who are qualified in Northern Ireland.

9. SR 2024-202 The Marcus Ward Street, Belfast (Abandonment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024

The Committee considered SR 2024-202 The Marcus Ward Street, Belfast (Abandonment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024.

Mr Keith Buchanan left the meeting at 11:59 am.

Agreed: That the Committee for Infrastructure has considered SR 2024-202 The Marcus Ward Street, Belfast (Abandonment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024 and has no objection to the rule.

10. SL1 - The Kinard Park, Garvagh (Abandonment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025

The Committee considered SL1 - The Kinard Park, Garvagh (Abandonment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025.

Agreed: That the Committee was content with the proposal for the statutory rule.

11. Subordinate Legislation – SL1s Not subject to Assembly Procedure

The Committee noted the following proposal for a Statutory Rule, which is not subject to Assembly Proceedings:

SL1 – The Parking and Waiting Restrictions (Derry/Londonderry) (Amendment No. 2) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025.

12. Forward Work Programme

The Committee considered the draft Forward Work Programme.

Agreed: To proceed with the scheduled evidence as set out in the draft Forward Work Programme.

Agreed: To schedule oral evidence session from DfI on its requirements for the Budget 2025-26.

13. Any Other Business

Agreed: To circulate the Committee’s revised strategic plan and agreed actions for members’ information.

14. Date, Time and Place of next meeting

The next meeting will be on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 at 10:00 am in Room 29, Parliament Buildings.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:20 pm.

Mrs Deborah Erskine

Chairperson, Committee for Infrastructure

29 January 2025