To the Detractors: A Bridge Would Not Hollow Out the Villages — It Would Give People More Freedom to Choose Them Introduction Opponents of a Strangford Lough Crossing often repeat the same warning: build a bridge, bypass the villages, and Strangford and Portaferry will lose trade. It sounds plausible on the surface, but it rests […]
Does DfI Apply Its Own Rules Consistently? The Department for Infrastructure uses a standard five-part framework — the DoF Better Business Cases methodology — to assess every significant transport proposal it considers. It is the same framework that underpins the A5 Western Transport Corridor, Northern Ireland’s largest active roads project. We applied that same framework […]
WHY NOT? THE MINISTER ASKED THE RIGHT QUESTION. NOW WE NEED THE ANSWER IN WRITING. On 3 February 2026, Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins MLA stood in the Northern Ireland Assembly and, in the course of an Adjournment Debate on the A20 Portaferry Road, said the following about a permanent crossing over Strangford Lough: “If there […]
Stormont is overspending on day‑to‑day services it can’t afford, underspending on the investment money it does have, and overrunning by billions on the projects it actually delivers. That single sentence captures why Northern Ireland’s public finances feel broken – and why “more money from London” on its own will never fix the problem. The detail…. […]
Strangford Lough Crossing: a practical climate and cost solution for everyone For too long, the debate about Strangford Lough Crossing has been trapped in politics. That is a mistake. This is not just a transport question; it is a resilience question, a climate question, and a value-for-money question. The strongest case for a fixed crossing […]
The NI/UK Five Case Model business case process, where the strategic need, broad options, and initial value-for-money case are set out From a layperson view, the Northern Ireland Executive usually treats a requested scheme as a proposal to be tested, not a promise to be built. In the context of SLC www.strangfordloughcrossing.org, SOC stands for Strategic Outline Case.It […]
What Would a Proper Business Case for the Strangford Lough Crossing Actually Show? There is a question that keeps being asked in response to this campaign, often by people who mean well. It goes something like this: “But surely the numbers just do not stack up for a bridge over Strangford Lough?” It is a […]
Where www.strangfordloughcrossing.org Stands in the Formal NI Infrastructure Appraisal Process If Northern Ireland part of the UK, there is a need for strategic infrastructure since the GFA. Ordinary people have seen no such investment to date. The DoF Better Business Cases NI Five Case Model follows a defined sequential gateway process. Each stage requires ministerial […]
“Evidence is not ‘Nonsense’ A comment appeared online this week dismissing the suggestion that young families are leaving the Ards Peninsula because of the cost and inconvenience of the ferry, and that falling school enrolments are a consequence. The word used was: “Nonsense.” I said I would prove it. Here is the proof. Every figure […]
Have been asked to create images of SLC to indicate where located and preferably, a day and night image. Day time view of SLC at The Narrows, from centre of Portaferry Night time view of SLC at The Narrows, from centre of Portaferry