Other News In Brief

Farmer Fined For Pollution Offence

A farmer has been fined for polluting around 3.5 kilometres of a County Down waterway at Newtownards Magistrates' Court

David James pleaded guilty and was fined £1,500 and £15 offender for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

On 11 July 2015, Water Quality Inspectors (WQI), acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), investigated a pollution incident which was caused by farm yard effluent being discharged to a tributary of the Cotton River, Bangor.

The inspectors discovered the waterway was covered in sewage fungus immediately downstream and discoloured as far as Ballyholme Beach where the Ballyholme River meets Belfast Lough.

Inspectors entered the farm at Gransha Road and observed silage effluent discharging from a storm pipe to an open water course adjacent to the farm yard. The stream smelled strongly of silage effluent and was impacted by sewage fungus from the silage effluent tank actively discharging to the waterway adjacent to the farm yard. In accordance with procedures a statutory sample of the effluent was collected.

This was a serious polluting discharge that allowed farm effluent to enter a waterway which flows to Ballyholme Beach, an important local amenity and Blue Flag Beach. The polluting discharge affected 3.5 kilometres of waterway.

£4m Funding To Be Made Available For York Street Interchange Project

A total of £4million funding will be made available to develop the York Street Interchange project in Belfast to a construction ready state, the Infrastructure Minister has confirmed.

The contract award for the development will also be progressed, according to Minister Chris Hazzard.

Minister Hazzard said: "This is an important step in the development of the Interchange which is seeking to address the traffic delays at this heavily congested location. There is no doubt that a scheme of this scale represents a significant investment in our economy.

"By removing the traffic bottleneck, the new interchange will improve journey time reliability and road safety for motorists, including freight transport, and support the competitiveness of the Port of Belfast with improved links to the strategic road network.

"I am pleased to announce that funding of up to £4million will be allocated to allow the scheme to be developed to a point where construction could begin. The identification of funding for the construction phase will be dependent on future budgets and is unclear at this time.

"The consultation process recommended within the Public Inquiry Report is now commencing with the local community and key stakeholders. The release of funding to allow a contractor to come on board to develop the scheme will improve the quality of this process."

Decision to Retain All Courthouses Will Waste £1m Of Public Money – Ford

Alliance South Antrim MLA David Ford has said the decision taken by Justice Minister Claire Sugden to retain all courthouses will waste over £1million of public money.

Mr Ford said: "During my time as Justice Minister I undertook a substantial consultation exercise on the court estate, including a number of public events and a series of meetings with council delegations and other elected representatives. As a result of this listening process I modified the proposals but announced plans to close six.

"Last October, the current Justice Minister halted these closures, saying it was a personal decision. It was clearly a populist decision taken without evidence being offered.

"The Justice Minister has now confirmed to me that savings of £1.1 million anticipated from my planned rationalisation of the court estate will not now be made by the Courts and Prison Services. In addition to this are the costs associated with probation officers and police officers who are required to attend these six courts, a further waste of public money."

(CD/JP)