By Conor Sharkey

A STRABANE farmer has called on the Roads Service to come clean over their plans for the town's bypass, following an announcement that stage three of the project has been shelved.

Stage three of the bypass was put on hold following the recent announcement of plans to build a dual carriageway running from Aughnacloy to Derry.

News of the project being put on ice has angered some landowners along the proposed route, who say they have put in time and effort to accommodate Roads Service in the bid to get the project up and running.

Those involved in recent consultation sessions also claim that they were led to believe that, due to the advanced level of stage three of the bypass, it was only a matter of months before their land would be purchased from them.

Farmer Derek Donnell said he would be seeking clarification from Roads Service over the developing fiasco.

"We have been in consultation with Roads Service for a considerable period of time over stage three of the bypass. As far as we were concerned, construction of the bypass was almost ready to start and now we have been informed that it might not happen at all.

"My main concern would be that if it has been shelved in favour of the new dual carriageway, where is that going to run? "We have received no consultation nor seen any plans to build a dual carriageway at all and I think we need to be told.

"Basically, all the landowners involved in this have been left in limbo and Roads Service would need to clarify just how advanced plans are for this dual carriageway and what is going to happen next. We need something more solid than what we have been given so far.

"It all seems very up in the air to me at the moment and I will be speaking to Roads Service. I want to know exactly what is happening at the moment because it is unacceptable to leave us all dangling the way they have," Mr Donnell said.

Responding to the concerns of landowners, a Roads Service spokesperson said further correspondence on the bypass will be issued this week. However, it could be another three years before a decision on land purchase is finalised.

They said: "It has now been decided that the bypass scheme will be subsumed into the A5 dualling project. There is the possibility that the eventual preferred route for the dualling may coincide with the preferred route for the third stage of the bypass.

"It is anticipated that it will take three years to complete the statutory procedures to enable acquisition of the land for the dualling. Landowners approached and whose land (in the interim at least) will not be acquired won't be compensated, save compensation relating to the ground investigation whereby boreholes/trial pits were sunk on their lands," added the spokesperson.