Stormont faces backlash over £7.5m Ballymena link road blunder

St Patrick’s Link Road, Ballymena

Stormont departments are facing a storm of criticism after it emerged that Ballymena’s new £7.5 million St Patrick’s Link Road cannot currently be used by buses — despite being promoted as a key route to the soon-to-open Northern Regional College (NRC) campus.

The road, connecting Larne Link Road to Broughshane Road, was built to open up the former St Patrick’s Barracks site for regeneration.

The Department for Communities, which led the project, described it on its website as “a key component in opening up the full site for much needed mixed development, including access to the new Northern Regional College site.”

However, North Antrim MP Jim Allister said the project had been fatally undermined by a basic planning failure.

“With the new college campus due to open in September I enquired about the availability of bus services along the new link road,” Mr Allister said.

“I am astounded to have been told in correspondence from Graeme Smyth of Translink that ‘it would appear that the developers of the St Patrick’s Link Road didn’t fully consult with Translink, which has now given rise to a couple of issues — the link road needs lay-bys for buses before our services could safely operate along it, and as it stands, these would have to be funded by either the developers or DFI.

“Also, there is a concern that the new NRC campus doesn’t actually have facilities for bus services to safely pick up and set down.’”

The TUV leader accused officials of “asleep at the wheel” decision-making.

“This flagship project was overseen by a ‘Programme Board’, which was led by the Department and met on a regular basis, yet no one ever thought, it seems, to talk to Translink to make it usable by buses! Really!!

“The result is that with the new NRC campus about to open students will not be able to catch a bus to or near the campus and will be expected to walk on dark mornings and evenings from the town centre. Likewise, users of the other facilities serviced by the link road will have no bus service! If and when the long promised new leisure centre is built on this route, the lack of a bus service will be another acute embarrassment and detriment.

“This is a fundamental design fault and a scandal that £7.5m can be spent on a link road which can’t link anyone by bus to its facilities. Ivory tower designers and overseers were clearly asleep at the wheel. My challenge now to both the departments of Communities and Infrastructure is what do they intend to do to rectify this ludicrous situation?

“DFI Roads were very quick a few years ago to remove bus lay-bys outside Slemish College, thereby causing traffic chaos so that an unused and excessively wide bicycle lane could be provided, now they have built this new road which buses can’t use. What a shambles!”

TUV MLA Timothy Gaston also condemned the lack of planning, calling it an example of disjointed government.

“If ever there was a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing, this is it. Where were the designers, what were the college representatives on the Programme Board doing and why were these departments pouring millions into a sub-standard road?

“When Stormont returns I will be demanding answers from both departments and their ministers. If Stormont can’t even build a serviceable road, then what is the point of it?”

The St Patrick’s Link Road forms part of a wider regeneration project for the former army barracks site, earmarked for mixed-use development. It was intended to improve access to key community facilities, but no timescale has yet been announced for adding the bus infrastructure needed for public transport services to operate along the route.