SDLP Foyle MLA Colum Eastwood says North West needs more than a road
SDLP Foyle MLA Colum Eastwood has called for a cross party commitment to an ambitious plan for growth and infrastructure development in the North West that goes beyond patchwork promises.
Mr Eastwood was speaking after deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said that he would not sign up to a programme for government until work began on the A5.
The Foyle MLA, who is to contest the leadership of the SDLP in November, said: “People in the North/West have heard too many empty words and hollow rhetoric to be taken in by patchwork promises that fail to address the critical need to rebalance our economy.
“Martin McGuinness clearly has some inside information on the development of the A5 and if we’re going to see action, then that’s great.
“But what about the rest of the projects that we need to pursue to deliver the success that Derry and the North/West deserve?
“The SDLP is pursuing an ambitious plan for growth and infrastructure development that will regenerate our regional economy.
“That includes the expansion of the University at Magee to attract new skills clusters and create a dynamic flow of talented graduates that can sustain long term development.
“A motorway between Belfast and Derry that ends the unacceptable infrastructure isolation that our city has been subjected to.
“If the Executive doesn’t deliver at least that then they will have failed the people of the North/West again.
“Titbits of insider information may make nice headlines but the patchwork promise politics wont deliver for Derry and the North/West.”
