‘No more cash for bridge’ says CEO

There is ‘no provision anywhere in the budget for 2017’ for the Narrow Water Bridge, Louth County Council’s chief executive has stated.

Joan Martin was responding to a query from Cllr. Frank Godfrey at last week’s council meeting to discuss the local authority’s budget for next year.

Cllr. Godfrey asked what the estimates were for 2017 for the Narrow Water Bridge. He said: ‘ This is a big project and we need to keep it to the forefront’.

But Ms Martin said there is ‘no provision anywhere for it’ and she was ‘not proposing to spend any more money on it unless something happens like there is new funding from other sources’.

She said: ‘No more funding from Louth County Council will be spent on it’.

The issue of the bridge prompted Cllr. Edel Corrigan, chairperson of the Memorandum of Understanding committee in the council, to highlight what she said was the lack of cross border planning by the council in this budget.

She said cross border items had moved from the strategic policy committee to EU relations and now it’s corporate services.

Cllr. Corrigan said she felt cross border issues were slipping down the priority list for council officials and wanted to know exactly what type of commitment had been shown in the budget them.

She said: ‘Where are we with regional development? How will we address issues around Brexit? I’m lost, I don’t know where the figures for it are (in the budget).

Director of Service Emer O’Gorman said cross border issues didn’t have a statutory place in the budget, but they were mentioned in the directors’ reports.

Cllr. Corrigan said hers was ‘constructive criticism’ and asked for the minutes of the MOU meetings to be circulated to all councillors, a request which Ms O’Gorman agreed to.