BY AILEEN MURPHY
A push for bypasses in Enniskillen and Manorhamilton was agreed on at a recent cross border roads meeting.
The meeting in Glenfarne was held to overcome lack of Government funding for both schemes.
Now the two schemes have become priorities and a special committee is to canvas both Governments for monies to carry them out.
The Fermanagh District Council was well represented at the cross-Border roads meeting. It was by the North Leitrim Group whose members have been lobbying, without success, for a number of years for monies to improve the road from Blacklon through to Sligo.
Last year, following the exclusion of the route in plans announced by the National Roads Authority in the South, the Group looked northwards to Fermanagh and Dungannon/South Tyrone Councils for their help in an extended roads improvement scheme that would stretch from Ballygawley Roundabout to Sligo itself.
Robert Gibson, who represented the officership of Fermanagh Council, welcomed that decision. He explained that all five Councils present were in agreement, Fermanagh/Dungannon in the North along with Leitrim/Cavan/Sligo in the South.
"The reason we were invited on board was to see if, together, we could attract funding. As you know, this was a route that we in Fermanagh Council have been working on and it has been identified by ICBAN, the central border network, as one of the priority routes.
"Since the railways were taken away from us in 1957, there have been no improvements on the A4 (Ballygawley-Enniskillen) road. OK, we're now seeing improvements from the end of the motorway to the roundabout at Ballygawley, but no plans to do anything from there to Sligo".
Mr Gibson went on: "That means we need to lobby hard because no funding has been identified in any of the plans, North or South, for improvements to that road which runs straight through to Sligo".
He said Monday's agreement to opt for the two by-passes at Enniskillen and Manorhamilton was a breaking up of a larger roads' improvement project, rendering handier to attract funding.
Among the Fermanagh Councillors was Gerry McHugh, an Independent MLA who reported that it was agreed by all those attending that the region had suffered from under-investment by central government for years despite a European directive that there should be balanced regional development.
"The poor state of the N16/A4 is having a negative economic impact on the region with the cost of transporting, importing and exporting goods much higher than in other regions," he added.
A lobbying group was formed, with three representatives from each of the five County/District Councils to campaign for the Manorhamilton and Enniskillen by-passes.
Mr McHugh was nominated to serve as a MLA from Fermanagh. He said it was their hope that by getting the by-passes in place, it would follow that the rest of the road would be upgraded.
He highlighted the need to make the Ministers in both Dublin and Belfast aware of the state of the N16/A4, although he suggested that the attitude to those in government from East of the Bann, including the Minister for Regional Development (Conor Murphy) was there was no traffic congestion problem in Enniskillen.
