NI Waterway To The World Mooted

A huge construction project centred on waterway-based tourism is set to be literally 'ground-breaking' if funding is achieved.

Lisburn City Council is taking the lead in the imaginative development, which aims to establish a single inland waterway with a sea connection at either end.

It will also link the east and west coasts of Ulster to form a new, water-based tourism project to rival any such facility worldwide.

The overall project would involve the restoration of the Lagan Navigation, the Erne Canal Maritime Extension and the Ulster Canal.

The initial cost of a project to pave the way for the huge scheme is just under £1m (£985,000) with the application being prepared by the Councils of the Metropolitan Area (Comet) Partnership on behalf of the project partners.

While 'run' by Lisburn - whose town hall actually sits across the remnants of the formerly fully navigable Lisburn canal - others, such as Fermanagh District Council - home of the previous mega-waterway project, the Erne-Shannon Waterway reopening, have been asked for support.

Through the Comet Partnership, different components of the project are presently at various stages of development so the partner councils and organisations can apply for funding from the European Union's 'Interreg IV' to carry out the preparatory studies and appraisals necessary to deliver the overall project.

The scheme's first stage, Lisburn Council's Lagan Corridor Programme, through the Ulster Waterways Group has outlined plans to establish a Gateway Complex at the Stranmillis Weir, Belfast which would permit access onto the old Lagan Canal, further upstream through restored Locks 2, 3 and 4 and eventually past Lisburn and on to Lough Neagh.

Once through to Lough Neagh, there is access through the Bann to the sea at Castlerock, Co Londonderry, while the it would also 'join-up' with the projected re-opening of the Ulster Canal, from Upper Lough Erne, at Belturbet in the Irish Republic to Lough Neagh, allowing access to the huge inter-Island Shannon, navigable all the way to Limerick and through another waterway, to Dublin and the sea.

The restoration of a sea link from Lower Lough Erne, at Belleek, through to Donegal at Ballyshannon has also been mooted - though very hard to achieve as the Assaroe lake was created by the construction of a dam which is located in Ballyshannon to run a Donegal hydroelectric power station.

Lisburn MP and Stormont Junior Minister, Jeffrey Donaldson said he hoped it would encourage both business and tourism.

"There are parts of Northern Ireland, particularly towards the centre, where there is a need for investment and regeneration," said Mr Donaldson.

"And we believe opening up our waterways will bring people and visitors into those areas."

(BMcC)