O’Dowd: NI Water does not have site or planning permission for Coshquin Pumping Station needed for 2,500 homes

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Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd told MLAs this week that NI Water has not yet secured a site for a new pumping station required to facilitate 2,500 new homes in Derry close to the Donegal border.

Mr. O’Dowd said he did not believe the main impediment to Braidwater’s The Cashel development on H2 lands between Ballymagroarty and Coshquin was budgetary.

During questions to the Infrastructure Minister on Monday, Sinn Féin MLA Ciara Ferguson asked: “Can he confirm that it is not a budgetary issue that is holding up the Cashel development in Derry?”

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The minister replied: “At the moment, it is not. If you do not have a site or planning permission, I do not see how you can spend a budget. A number of barriers have to be overcome there.

Of 19,000 properties across the North unable to proceed without NI Water investment and upgrades - 5,300 are in Derry & Strabane, including The Cashel, the massive Braidwater scheme on the Buncrana Road that will involve an investment of £450m and the construction of 2,500 new homes.Of 19,000 properties across the North unable to proceed without NI Water investment and upgrades - 5,300 are in Derry & Strabane, including The Cashel, the massive Braidwater scheme on the Buncrana Road that will involve an investment of £450m and the construction of 2,500 new homes.
Of 19,000 properties across the North unable to proceed without NI Water investment and upgrades - 5,300 are in Derry & Strabane, including The Cashel, the massive Braidwater scheme on the Buncrana Road that will involve an investment of £450m and the construction of 2,500 new homes.

"The site has to be identified, and planning permission has to be granted, and then the thorny question of budget comes alive.”

Ms. Ferguson asked the minister whether a site had been confirmed and, if so, whether planning permission had been granted, for a proposed a new upgraded Coshquin Pumping Station.

Mr. O'Dowd said: “NI Water has advised me that it has not secured a site for the new waste water pumping station at Coshquin and, therefore, does not have planning permission to operate the waste water treatment works.

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"The Coshquin waste water treatment works cannot be upgraded until a site has been identified and secured, and it then must go through the planning process.

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"Therefore, the Cashel housing development cannot progress until a site has been identified and planning permission granted. NI Water has been in negotiations with the landlord of the preferred site since August 2023.

"As the negotiations have been unsuccessful to date, NI Water is also investigating alternative sites.”

NI Water has estimated that it will cost £15m to upgrade the Coshquin Pumping Station.

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Of 19,000 properties across the North unable to proceed without NI Water investment and upgrades - 5,300 are in Derry & Strabane, including The Cashel, the massive Braidwater scheme on the Buncrana Road that will involve an investment £450m and the construction of 2,500 new homes.

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