Road maintenance cuts could hit flooding areas

Road maintenance cuts could hit flooding areas

22 April 2015

STORMONT budget cuts could lead to flash flooding in the Killyleagh and Shrigley areas a local politician has warned.

The Department of Regional Development has confirmed gully cleaning has been reduced as a result of the budget cut, alongside routine road maintenance. Grass cutting will take place once over the summer while single street lights won’t be repaired.

Councillor Billy Walker said the fact gullies won’t be cleaned regularly could result in flash flooding, which he warned has the potential to leave taxpayers picking up the bill for any damage.

Describing the Stormont cuts as a “false economy,” the Rowallane politician argued penny pinching now by not carrying out maintenance work and emptying gullies could prove costly in the long run.

He met with a senior roads official last week to discuss a number of issues in Killyleagh and Shrigley and admits to being “staggered” there is virtually no money for any maintenance work at all.

Councillor Walker said he has nothing but the highest regard for local roads officials and is concerned the work they can do has been severely restricted by the cuts.

“Not cleaning gullies will lead to flooding. When that happens, there will be a hue and cry about budget cuts but it will be too late for people if their homes or businesses have been flooded,” he continued.

“I am concerned local roads officials have literally had their hands tied as they cannot carry out 

the work they know needs to be 

done. The fact grass cutting will only take place once this year, not twice, will inevitably pose problems for drivers, particularly at road junctions, increasing the potential for accidents and putting people’s lives in danger.”

Councillor Walker said he hopes Department of Regional Development (DRD) Minister Danny Kennedy can find the money to allow more routine maintenance work to take place.

He added: “The fact there is no money for routine road maintenance is particularly worrying and something that will concern many people across the district.”

A DRD spokesperson said in a briefing to the Regional Development Committee last month, Minister Kennedy outlined the pressures on his department’s resource budget and the potential impact on routine maintenance services.

She said Minister Kennedy stated: “As it stands, my budget does not provide for sufficient service provision in areas like repair of potholes and traffic lights and other measures such as gully emptying and grass cutting at junctions. 

“As a result, TransportNI has no option other than to cut back on the routine maintenance of the network. There will be no funding available for external contractors to carry out routine road maintenance, however, the Department’s internal workforce will be providing a skeleton service.”

Minister Kennedy said road inspections will continue as normal with only the highest priority potholes repaired, with gully emptying and grass cutting services provided on a reduced scale. 

Mr. Kennedy added: “The DRD will prioritise the repair of defects so that the most urgent defects are repaired first to ensure the impact on road safety is minimised. The Department simply cannot spend money that it does not have and in taking forward the skeleton service it is proceeding at financial risk until the outcome of June monitoring is known.”