Speaking in the Assembly during an Adjournment debate, West Tyrone DUP MLA Tom Buchanan has raised serious concerns about the devastating impact the A5 dual carriageway project is having on local farming families. Mr Buchanan said those affected had become a ‘forgotten community’ and called on Ministers to step up and deliver the support they need.
Tom Buchanan MLA said:
“This community has endured 15 years of uncertainty not of their own making, and now, even after their land has been vested, they remain in the dark about what they will receive in compensation or when that money will come. In the meantime, their land has been fenced off and excluded from their single farm payment claims.
These are third and fourth generation family farms, with livelihoods built over generations now at risk of being made unviable. The stress and anxiety inflicted on these families is unbearable.
I am calling for clarity from the Department for Infrastructure, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Agriculture. These three Departments must stop passing the buck and start working together. Has any joined-up meeting even taken place to address the serious and valid concerns of this community? Going by the answers given in the Assembly, it would seem no such approach is being undertaken.
Contractors are already on-site. Trees have been felled. Hedgerows dug up. Yet the land remains unpaid for. This land in a real sense still doesn’t belong to the Government. The court case looms, and no one knows what happens if it goes against the Department.
This community is under siege. It needs answers. It needs action. And it needs to know that its voice is being heard. Ministers must step up, work together, and deliver fairness and support to a community that has given so much and received so little in return.”