§ Lord Lairdasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will:
- (a) Obtain powers to dredge or remove debris and rubbish from the Connswater and Knock Rivers and their banks for their full length within Belfast;
WA 237 - (b) indicate who are the public sector littoral owners of those rivers who have current responsibility for such dredging; and
- (c)enhance the Connswater River with overhanging walkways as it flows through the Connswater Shopping Centre in east Belfast. [HL4945]
§ Baroness AmosThe main urban sections of the Connswater and Knock Rivers in east Belfast are already designated for maintenance by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Rivers Agency. Maintenance work is carried out as and when necessary to ensure free flow. Works, including channel clearance, in the Connswater and Knock Rivers are included in the agency's maintenance programme in the current business year. Any extension of existing designated sections would only be based on drainage need, and not amenity reasons.
Designation of watercourses within the terms of the Drainage (Northern Ireland) Order 1973 does not require public sector ownership of the watercourses concerned to enable necessary drainage works to take place.
The Rivers Agency's drainage remit does not enable it to carry out works solely for amenity reasons and therefore that agency has no plans to construct overhanging walkways in the vicinity of the Connswater River.
Also, the draft Belfast metropolitan transport plan will contain an integrated range of proposals for walking/cycling, public transport, highways and management up to 2015. The work to develop the plan has not identified a pedestrian need that would justify the potentially high costs of constructing walkways overhanging the Connswater River in the vicinity of the Connswater shopping centre in east Belfast.