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 predicted.

What the Department Wants Us to Prove

Their letter says they’d need clear evidence that the ferry is overloaded, unsafe, or that new development is coming that needs a crossing. In short: prove the ferry isn’t good enough, and they’ll think about a study.

But That’s Not What We’re Asking For

This campaign has never said the ferry is failing. We’ve never built our case on the ferry being too small, too slow, or unsafe. What we’ve asked for, from day one, is much simpler: a proper, independent study to find out whether a bridge between Portaferry and Strangford could pay for itself through tolls.

That’s a completely different question. It doesn’t depend on the ferry being bad. It depends on things like:

• How many people are already driving the long way round. About 29,000 vehicles a day go around the lough, compared to roughly 650 a day on the ferry. That gap exists whether the ferry is coping fine or not.
• Whether tolls could cover the cost. That’s a money question, not a ferry question.
• Whether a bridge would boost the local economy. Politicians from different parties have made this case, and none of them needed the ferry to be broken to make it.

Why This Matters

By making it about the ferry, the Department can say “we don’t have proof the ferry’s struggling” and treat the matter as closed. But that misses the point entirely. A bridge could make sense even if the ferry runs perfectly. Nobody builds a motorway next to a good road only after proving the old road has failed. The economic case stands on its own.

The Cost of Getting the Question Wrong

None of this changes what we’re asking for. A proper study would cost between £250,000 and £500,000, once, with no promise to build anything. The ferry already costs £2,090,000 every single year. Spending a fraction of one year’s ferry bill to find out if a bridge could work seems like plain common sense.

The Department doesn’t need to be convinced the ferry is failing. It needs to answer the question we actually asked.

What We’re Doing Next

We’ve written to the Department asking them to confirm, in writing, that the ferry’s adequacy was never what our request was about. We’ve also asked, formally, for the evidence behind their claim that the ferry “isn’t operating at capacity.”

Two different questions. We’re still waiting for them to answer ours.

Full details at www.strangfordloughcrossing.org.

Kevin Barry BSc(Hons) MRICS, Campaign Lead, Strangford Lough Crossing Campaign.