Author: Kevin Barry BSc(Hons) MRICS

The Department Answered a Question We Never Asked Strangford Lough Crossing Campaign | www.strangfordloughcrossing.org The Department for Infrastructure wrote to us again on 28 August 2026. Reading it carefully, something stands out: they’ve spent two pages arguing against a question we never actually asked. They have come back with Point 1 on the whiteboard, as […]

Worked for 12s SiteIQ Scout: Hear What Is Happening Around You as You Travel SiteIQ Scout is a location-aware service developed in Northern Ireland by Chartered Quantity Surveyor Kevin Barry through QUINTIN QS. Its purpose is straightforward: to make people more aware of the places they travel through and to turn scattered local information into […]

Would a Permanent Strangford Lough Crossing Help or Harm the Ards Peninsula and County Down? A Review of the International Evidence Strangford Lough Crossing Campaign — www.strangfordloughcrossing.org Executive Summary This question is asked honestly and often, including by local business owners with a direct economic interest in the status quo. It deserves a straight answer […]

Narrow Water Bridge: a new crossing with big hopes for tourism and growth (Update: Transport Logistics) Photos from Belgium where prefabricated part being made and preparing for delivery to Ireland Update: 24-08-2026 (Transport Logistics) Transport logistics for the Narrow Water Bridge prefabricated steel sections from Aelterman’s Ghent workshop (Belgium) to the site on Carlingford Lough […]

Two Councils Have Spoken. Now Their Local Development Plans Need to Say the Same Thing Portaferry and Strangford sit 0.6 nautical miles apart, separated by the Narrows and by an accident of local government history. Since 1 April 2015, Portaferry has been the responsibility of Ards and North Down Borough Council, and Strangford has been […]

The Case for Resilience: Why the Ards Peninsula Cannot Afford to Rely on One Crossing Strangford Lough Crossing (SLC) Campaign — for the latest evidence and updates, visit www.strangfordloughcrossing.org Michael O’Leary built Ryanair on one uncomfortable question: what happens when your only aircraft is grounded? You do not run an airline, or a country, on […]

The Inner Partition: What a Lough Without a Bridge Really Costs For years, this campaign has set out the case for a permanent crossing at Strangford Lough in terms of journey times, subsidy costs and traffic data. All of that evidence stands. But it’s worth naming, plainly, what the absence of a crossing actually does […]

Click on image above for direct access to Extension Calculator Knowing the Extension Cost Before You Call an Architect or Builder ExtendIQ gives homeowners and local builders a realistic starting point — before the first conversation happens. One of the most common frustrations in residential construction is the gap between expectation and reality. A homeowner […]

Strangford Lough Crossing — Interactive Feasibility Dashboard For the attention of: the Minister for Infrastructure, MPs, MLAs and councillors with a constituency interest in the Ards Peninsula, Lecale and Strangford Lough. Sixty years after the 1961–64 Stormont bridge proposal, and thirteen years after the Department’s last internal review, the case for a fixed crossing at […]

NI Planning Performance 2025/26 — A Practical Guide for ArchitectsRanked by processing speed, approval rates and major application throughput. All 11 council areas covered. Data: DfI/NISRA Q3 2025/26. By QUINTIN QS 1 Introduction Planning permission is the first constraint on every project. Before a design is agreed, before a contractor is appointed, before a foundation […]