South Ayrshire Council - News - North Channel Partnership Meeting

NORTH CHANNEL PARTNERSHIP MEETING

Councillor Margaret Toner, the Convener of South Ayrshire Council’s Economic and Tourism Development Committee, travelled to the P&O Offices in Cairnryan to take part in the latest North Channel Partnership meeting.

Established in 1999 the North Channel Partnership is made up of people with key public and commercial interests who would like to develop vital transport links between South West Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Transport Minister, Tavish Scott attended the meeting along with representatives from a wide range of organisation who are keen to see transport links improved, these included P&O Irish Sea, Stena Line, the Freight Transport Association and Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Councillor Toner said: “The North Channel Partnership has a very important role to play in developing transport links between Northern Ireland and the West of Scotland.

“Improving transport links would bring many benefits to South Ayrshire, the most important of which is that road safety would be improved.

“Today businesses move at a fast pace and they need to be able to transport goods quickly to wherever their stock is needed, and thus improve their efficiency. Likewise tourists need to move about freely, and the easier the travel links are the more people will choose to visit this area.

”People using the terminals on Scottish land do not have the same efficient road structure as there is in Ireland, this is something that the North Channel Partnership is trying to change.”

The topics discussed at the Partnership meeting included:

Confirmation of timescale of A75 and A77 schemes.

How we input into Strategic project Review.

Feedback on National Transport Strategy.

Confirmation of continued status of Stranraer Rail Line.

In Ireland funding from the European Economic Community has been used to improve the roads that are used to travel to and from the port which has connections with Scotland. Stena and P&O have invested heavily in the Cairnryan, Troon and Stranraer ports and in vessels, over the last ten years the investment amounts to approximately 155 million pounds.

August 2006