Minister to officially open new Stranorlar school this afternoon

Ongoing difficulties in relation to the road and footpath serving the new €8 million St Mary's National School in Stranorlar dominated part of the last meeting of the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District.

Cathaoirleach, Cllr Patrick McGowan highlighted a number of crisis situations that were attracting the wrong kind of public attention

The new St Mary's National School in Stranorlar will be officially opened this afternoon by the Minister for Education Norma Foley TD 

He asked for an update on the condition of the Mill Brae footpath which had to serve to the new school which is due to be officially opened this afternoon Friday, March 31 by the Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD.

“I know we have been getting some progress reports but some seem to be quite dated and we really need to know when the work is going to be done.

“Some of the reports talk about land and landowners but we need a bit more detail. It is a very problematic area.”

He added he knew there was an opportunity to acquire some of the land needed and asked roads and housing sections in the council to put their heads together on it.

“That Mill Brae junction is an absolute disgrace, an uncontrolled mess, a fiasco,” he said.

Council roads engineer Claire McGeever said in relation to the Mill Brae footpath, there were issues in relation to land and a few things happening that she could not go into detail about at the meeting but she would provide updates when they became available.

“The difficulty with some of these projects that require land acquisitions is the resources to do it.

“It takes a lot of time to negotiate land.

“We have a very small pool of engineers in this municipal district who are very busy with all these projects and that is part of the issue.”