Alliance slams Minister over action against primary school

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 12th Sep 2002

Alliance leader David Ford is seeking to ask a Private Notice Question to the Minister for the Environment, Dermot Nesbitt, asking him to explain his enforcement action over road conditions at Millennium Primary School, Carryduff.

Accusing Mr Nesbitt of trying to pull off a stunt, Mr Ford said the Minister had behaved "disgracefully" over accusations that the school had been in breach of planning permission."

Mr Ford said: "Rather than deal with the school directly, the Minister thought it would be better to issue a press release in advance of speaking to the school authorities."

"The alleged breach concerns the provision of a 'right turn' lane in the road, and all other conditions have been met. Work is underway on the road and expected to be completed in less than 10 days."

"Here we have a Minister who was impotent when it came to standing up to developers coming down with a heavy hand on an integrated primary school. I don't think he proving anything to anyone."

"I will be asking the Minister what complaints he had received from the PSNI in relation to traffic at the school, because I believe there were none; who initiated the enforcement action and what discussions took place in the last week between his department and either the school or NICIE."

"I also want to know whether it is his department's policy to issue press releases on enforcement notices before issuing the notice itself."

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