It comes after DfI Minister John O’Dowd confirmed to the Assembly on Monday that he would be recommending the planned upgrade of the A5 road should proceed.
A scheme to turn the road into a dual carriageway was first approved by the Northern Ireland Executive in 2007 but it has been held up by legal challenges and uncertainty over funding.
There have been more than 50 deaths on the road, which links Londonderry with Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone, since 2006.
Minister John O’Dowd had been considering a report compiled by the Planning Appeals Commission following last summer’s public inquiry into the road-building project.
Niall McKenna, Chairperson of A5 Enough is Enough, a campaign group set up to put pressure on the government to progress the development, said it was crucial that the NI Executive now moved forward with the plans.
“We fully expect the Executive to unanimously endorse the Minister’s decision,” he said.
“At the A5 – Enough is Enough Group’s public launch in January 2023, the massive crowd in attendance heard heart-wrenching evidence from families of road victims. Recurring stories and themes emerged.
Niall McKenna
“Families talked about “the knock on the door” – going to the front door, seeing illuminous coats out through the window, your heart sinking through some sort of sixth sense knowing that you are about to receive news that is going to tear your life apart.
“We heard about families being brought into cold, sterile morgues and looking down at the now lifeless body of your beautiful child. Or closed coffins because of the physical brutality a road traffic accident can inflict on a human body.
“At the Public Inquiry in Omagh last year, we heard testimony after testimony from multiple families of A5 road victims detailing the devastating impact of losing a family-member to this road – an average of one person every three months.
“We implored the decision-makers to end the carnage. Most people quietly expect the apparatus of civic society to deliver these types of projects for us. This has not been the case heretofore. We hope that today’s statement is the start of righting that historical wrong.
“Our right to safely traverse this part of the world is no longer a right that we will accept being denied to us. The ongoing deaths on this road demonstrate the urgency of the delivery of the new A5. We call for no further delay.
“No more evidence should be needed that the current A5 is not fit-for-purpose. The catastrophic mix of traffic on this road, which was designed for a bygone era, is resulting in an accident and death-rate that can only be described as grotesque.
“The on-going carnage is devastating families and communities in this locale. The delivery of the promise of July 2007 will belatedly save many lives and the carnage of this construct will be consigned to history.”
Northern Ireland Minister for Infrastructure John O’Dowd (Liam McBurney/PA)
Mr O’Dowd told MLAs that he would be recommending that the upgrade goes ahead. He was responding to a question from party colleague and West Tyrone MLA Nicola Brogan.
“I can confirm that at this morning’s Executive meeting I briefed Executive colleagues that in the coming days I will be issuing them with my initial response to the Planning Appeals Commission’s report. I will also be making a recommendation that we proceed with the A5,” he said.
“I am conscious that this is a cross-cutting issue (involving several departments). So, I will issue the papers to my Executive colleagues. I will await their feedback and then I will submit a further paper for mid-August for their approval and the moving ahead with the A5 project.”
The minister added: “I’ve given careful consideration to the 30 recommendations within the Planning Appeals Commission’s report.
“I’m also acutely aware of the road safety aspects of this. I believe that if my recommendation to approve is endorsed by the Executive, then what we are actually doing is not only providing a state-of-the-art road, correcting regional imbalance, but we’re also saving lives.”