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Newry woman Fidelma McKeever has spoken out on infrastructure issues in Newry and on what can be done to rectify them.
On what visitors see arriving into Newry Fidelma said, “When we enter Newry as a visitor coming from the South, you are met with a carpark underneath the flyover, then you come down the Dublin Road and we have islands for pedestrians to cross with half of them completed with a pole in the road. As a visitor it’s not a very attractive city and for the Department of infrastructure who have left the roads in a terrible state, no markings on the road and when you out to the Armagh Road to one of the busiest roundabouts in the city, there are no road markings and there needs to be some type of infrastructure put in traffic lights or something else.”
On whose fault it is for these issues Fidelma said “ Newry and Mourne Council and the Department for Infrastructure, all these bodies that you have to go through to get even an answer, and even if you get an answer it’s, 'we’re going to look at that.' Being in other towns in the north of Ireland I would say this is one of the worst towns in terms of the infrastructure, the cleanliness, not finishing of jobs, the infrastructure is all wrong.”
Thinking of towns that Newry can strive to look towards Fidelma said, “Lisburn is without a doubt a tidier town than Newry. For the population of Newry and the size of the town, it doesn’t balance up. You get on the train in Belfast and it’s frightening how many people from Newry travel to Belfast to do their shopping, they shouldn’t have to do that, they should be able to stay home and shop locally.”
On the vision that Fidelma has for Newry she said, “I want to see what is being started, to be finished, everything is half finished. They put a lovely walkway around the canal, the river the other side is in an awful state, look at the floods we had. Any other town in Europe would love to have an asset like the canal but it’s not maintained, they have no forward vision, there’s far too many cars on the road and if the public transport was better people would use it. Newry has the potential but it’s not being used.”
Newry.Ie asked the Department for Infrastructure and Newry, Mourne and Down District Council for comment on the issues brought up.
In their reply Newry, Mourne and Down District Council said “Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is responsible for maintenance of Newry Canal from Victoria Lock to the boundary with its neighbouring Council at Gambles Bridge.
"The Council is conscious that Newry Canal is a popular visitor attraction and its Maintenance Team undertakes daily maintenance (except Sunday) along the Canal. The council Maintenance Team will inspect Newry Canal in the vicinity of Newry bus station to establish what the issues are and determine what remedial actions may be required.”
Concerning the issue of cars parking at the Cloghogue roundabout the DFI said that this was the responsibility of the PSNI.
