Infrastructure Minister has welcomed £18m for two
projects from the Transformation Programme funding.
A pilot project to help transform the way in which rainwater is
managed will benefit from £15m funding and another project to
help address the workload in the Planning Appeals Commission will
benefit from £3m.
Welcoming the funding for both projects, Minister Kiimmins
said: “I am delighted that funding has now been
guaranteed to move these important areas of work forward, at a
time when public services and public finances are facing immense
challenges.
"The Urban Drainage pilot project will use nature-based
drainage solutions to demonstrate the benefits of managing
rainwater naturally on the surface, to slow its flow into rivers
and sewers. This in turn will help to reduce flood risk,
improve water quality by reducing spills from combined sewers and
provide a cost saving to NI Water through reduced energy costs
required for pumping and treatment. The project proposes to
retrofit around 10,000m3 of rainwater storage through a range of
nature-based drainage solutions such as attenuation ponds,
raingardens, swales and leaky dams.
"The Planning Appeals Commission has been under great
pressure for many years and this funding will help address those
pressures through increasing the resources needed to deal with
the issues in the planning system. Independent inspectors
will be appointed to carry out local public inquiries which will
speed up decision making in the system.
"I look forward to seeing progress being made with both
projects.”