CIHT Northern Ireland held a gala dinner at the Titanic Belfast on 22 March 2018. Over 200 guests attended the event and celebrated recent successes of CIHT Northern Ireland.

 

Guests heard from Karen McShane, Chair of CIHT Northern Ireland, Andreas Markides, CIHT President and Peter May, Permanent Secretary, Department for Infrastructure. 

Peter May, Permanent Secretary, Department for Infrastructure said:

 

“I would like to record my personal thanks to Karen and CIHT for their support in the past year. We have continued to operate on an annual budget which has not enabled us to provide the certainty that our sector needs. We are beginning to see some traction with a wider audience as the contribution of transport to wider society is being acknowledged.”

 

Peter went on to announce a £75m capital allocation which comprised of a £15m road recovery fund and £60m for road resurfacing and redressing. 

 

Karen McShane, Chair, CIHT Northern Ireland said:

“The relationship between a well maintained transport infrastructure and economic growth is well understood by our sector. We welcome this crucial investment in our infrastructure.”

“It is apparent that inadequate funding for the transportation sector is causing employment uncertainty, curtails professional development and causes deterioration of our transport network.” 

 

“Thankfully, the Secretary of States recent budget proposal will see a removal of the fear that funding was not available for gully emptying, winter maintenance as well as the current lack of repairs to street lighting.” 

 

“We at CIHT both nationally and locally continue to make a case for appropriate funding and continue to offer our extensive knowledge and expertise to Ministers and key decision makers. I believe that we are in a position to offer guidance and advice on how we can work together to improve this uncertainty.” 

 

Andreas Markides, President, CIHT said:

 

“We would like to record our thanks to the members of CIHT Northern Ireland. They continue to provide extensive services for our sector.” 

“Our committee continues to work very closely with the Department for Infrastructure and has provided submissions to a number of consultations. Recently we provided comment on the

 

Budget Briefing where we called for a rebalancing of the focus on highway and asset maintenance. This is a common theme that we know as an Institution that we must and will continue to push governments on the need to ensure we increase the focus on maintaining our vital infrastructure.”