BY CIARAN WOODS

STRABANE District Council will write to the new Regional Development Minister for clarification as to his stance on water charges.

The motion seeking clarification from Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy was passed by Council on Tuesday night, following a proposal from local councillor Ivan Barr.

Speaking about the debate, Cllr Barr said, "As a council, it was decided to write to the new Regional Development Minister to clarify what the current intention is regarding water charges, given that all political parties seemed to be as one before the election, making a point of their determination that water charges should not be implemented. With the Assembly now in place, we felt it was important for the public at large to know where things stand.

"The current problems with water and sewage infrastructure came about as a result of years of neglect by the British government, with a result that the infrastructure does not now meet EU standards. Given that each of the parties stressed that this was a British government problem, and that in the peace dividend they were demanding that Gordon Brown make sufficient funding available, we wanted to now know what the situation was given that there doesn't seem to have been any acceptance by Gordon Brown to pay for the improvements. So one must wonder what the future holds, exacerbated by the announcement this week that hundreds of Water Service employees are to lose their jobs," the Sinn Fein councillor said.