Conor Murphy on site visit to Short Strand

Today, Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy MP came on a site visit to the Short Strand area; he was joined by a number of departmental officials.

Conor met with myself, Bernie McCrory from the Short Stand Community Forum and Patrick Devlin, Chair of St Matthews Housing Association.

We went on a walkabout with management of the Translink Bus depot in the area. We held discussions inside about the future of the site and how it fits into the overall strategic plan for this part of the city and in particular the Short Strand community.

From there we looked at a number of problem spots for traffic flow and congestion and raised our concerns about the sheer amount of heavy duty vehicles that are using the Mountpottinger Road as a rat-run.

After our walkabout we headed into St Matthews Housing Association's office in Harper Street. Under the shadow of the monstrosity that is Mountpottinger Barracks we were able to inform Conor about our plans for developing the site for social and family homes.

At our discussion we were able to talk more about some of the traffic and pedestrian issues in the Strand. We also found out from the Roads Service officials where exactly the traffic calming for Madrid, Bryson and Edgar Streets are at; they will be contacting residents there in the next week or so to inform them of where things stand.

Following Conor's engagement we took him round to see the now completed 'An Tine Bheo memorial garden. Like most people who come to see it he was understandably impressed.
Here's some pics