{"id":239732,"date":"2025-07-05T09:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T09:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/239732\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T09:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T09:20:15","slug":"farmers-vested-land-for-new-a5-to-be-given-back-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/239732\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers vested land for new A5 to be given back \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farmers whose land was taken to build a new A5 road<\/a> have received letters from a Stormont department saying it has been returned and that they will be compensated.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how much more this latest development will cost taxpayers.<\/p>\n

It follows a judicial review in which the new \u2018western transport corridor\u2019 was blocked because the Department for Infrastructure failed to take into account its climate implications.<\/p>\n

The 58 mile dual carriageway was first announced in 2007 to replace the original A5 on which the Department for Infrastructure says 57 people have died since 2006.<\/p>\n

\"EA<\/a>\"UVF<\/a><\/p>\n

Plans for the \u00a31.7 billion dual carriageway saw around 3,000 acres of private land vested between Aughnacloy and Derry.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins said<\/a> on July 1 she was \u201cminded to appeal\u201d the High Court decision blocking the project and would seek opinions from the Executive.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI am determined that this road will be built and it is important that everyone who wants to see this happen works together in a constructive way to achieve that goal. We owe it to the people who have sadly lost their lives on this road.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FarmersFarmers land vested for A5 is to be handed back <\/p>\n

But in a letter dated July 2, deputy director of the A5WTC project informed landowners that as of June 27 \u201cownership of the vested lands has now reverted to you and all other affected landowners\u201d.<\/p>\n

It added that DfI has \u201cinstructed its contractors to vacate the land\u201d and that the department \u201cwill seek to agree reasonable costs for reinstatement of the vested land and compensation for use\u201d from November 25, 2024 until the date it is vacated.<\/p>\n

Stormont\u2019s Infrastructure Committee was told in June that \u00a3110m has already been spent on the project, pre-construction.<\/p>\n

Contractors have been on site for some time, clearing hedges, trees and moving earth in what is termed \u2018preparatory works\u2019.<\/p>\n

Now it appears the decision to carry out this work ahead of a court challenge by the A5 Alliance could cost the department millions more with DfI outlining three paths forward.<\/p>\n

They are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Fences and lands are left as they currently are until further decisions are made in relation to the project. Reasonable payment for continued loss of use of land.<\/li>\n
  2. The department reinstate boundaries and lands in agreement with landowner.<\/li>\n
  3. Payment to the landowner will be made in lieu of the department carrying out the reinstatement works.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The letter adds: \u201cThe department recognises the inconvenience and upheaval caused and DfI officials and their consultants will now arrange a meeting with all agents and representatives of the Ulster Farmers Union on 4 July 2025 to detail the department\u2019s position and answer any immediate questions\u201d.<\/p>\n

    \u201cMeetings with individual landowners will take place as soon as practicable to discuss how they would like to proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n

    DfI met with the Ulster Farmers\u2019 Union on Wednesday to discuss next steps. UFU deputy president John McLenaghan said following the meeting that they\u2019ve been left with \u201cmore questions than answers\u201d.<\/p>\n

    He added: \u201cThe Ulster Farmers\u2019 Union alongside land agents, welcomed the opportunity today to meet with the Department of Infrastructure and the Land and Property Services to discuss what happens next following the A5 High Court judgement.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThere are still more questions than answers, and our members need urgent responses so that we can all now move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The department has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farmers whose land was taken to build a new A5 road have received letters from a Stormont department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-239732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114799892284057010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}