Newry Mourne and Down District Council is to write to the Roads Minister regarding extra funding for roads maintenance.
At the full Special Council meeting of Newry Mourne and Down District Council held in Downpatrick on Monday 23rd May, Councillors approved a recommendation from Slieve Croob Councillor Patrick Clarke regarding that the Council lobbies the Roads Minister for more funds for our roads.
Councillor Patrick Clarke added: “I am dealing on a daily basis with constituent queries regarding a lot of pothole and poor roads surface on a lot of rural roads across the Slieve Croob area. I was shocked following speaking to a senior Transport NI official to learn that Transport NI is now measuring the depth of potholes to assess for repair.
“One example is the Drumnaquoile Road which I had previously reported to Transport NI. It is one such rural road and Transport NI officials replied to me stating that the Drumnaquoile road is a lightly trafficked rural road and was inspected and no potholes were found that met the Transport NI limited service intervention threshold for that category.
“Measuring potholes according to their depth before these potholes can be deemed to be repaired is a bad reflection of the state of our roads infrastructure and lack of financial funding over the last number of years by Stormont to address repairs and roads maintenance across our Council which is the 3rd largest in the North.
“I welcome that Councillors have approved my recommendation for the Chief Executive to write to the incoming Roads Minister to secure more funding from the Executive to increase the roads maintenance budget to allow Transport NI to carry out the necessary maintenance repairs across our Council region.”
