Transport Minister Danny Kennedy has commended roads staff and contractors for the successful completion of road schemes in 2014/2015 which accounted for £12.2million investment in the roads infrastructure in the Newry, Mourne and Down council area.
The Minister also said that his Department was facing £60million of cuts in 2015/16, more than half of which will fall to TransportNI, which is having a significant impact on services in particular maintenance activities in all areas.
Speaking ahead of this evening’s meeting between TransportNI and Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, the Minister said: “As it stands, my budget does not provide for sufficient service provision in areas like repair of potholes, street lights and traffic signals and other measures such as gully emptying and grass cutting at junctions.
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Rural disadvantage? Snow banked up on country roads during the bad winter two years ago. What will happen this winter to rural roads if gulleys are still blocked? Is there a budget to keep them safe and open?[/caption]
“As a result, my Department 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 Departments’ internal workforce will be providing a skeleton service for the first part of the year, at least.
“Road inspections will currently continue as normal, however, only the highest priority potholes will be repaired. Gully emptying and grass cutting services will be provided on a reduced scale. There will be limited weed control, maintenance of white lines and only one quarter of the required resource available to repair street lighting outages. Contractors will still be employed to carry out electrical inspection and testing of street lights and the repair of hazardous electrical and structural defects.
“I will be making a strong bid for resource funding in monitoring rounds to return routine maintenance services to normal levels.
“However, despite the cuts, a wide range of road improvement and maintenance schemes are planned or already complete in the Newry, Mourne and Down council area.
“The impact of current resource budget pressures on my Department is affecting routine maintenance of the road network; however capital budgets are less affected. Departmental officials will continue to develop resurfacing and traffic management schemes, to enhance safety, to improve traffic flow and provide measures for pedestrians and cyclists.”
Local Roads Manager Makes Presentation To Council
At the meeting, Transport NI Southern Division Manager, Simon Richardson, outlined a number of improvement and maintenance schemes that were completed in 2014/15. He said: “We are in a position of continuing organisation change and despite budgetary restrictions we have completed significant work in our area. I am pleased to note that sightline and junction improvement schemes completed include B8 Hilltown Road, Mayobridge (Murphy’s Corner); Loughinisland Road with the Tareesh Lane, Annacloy and the Magherhamlet Road with the Dunmore Road, Spa.
“Other significant areas of work completed by the Division include a bridge replacement scheme at Ballyfannaghan Bridge, Cullyhanna as well as the provision of vehicle restraint system on the Flagstaff Road, Newry. The safer routes to school initiative delivered enhanced high profile flashing amber light signs on approaches to St Patrick’s Primary School, Mayobridge; Windsor Hill Primary School, Newry and Annesborough Integrated Primary School.
“Approximately 99 lane kilometres of carriageway was resurfaced in 2014/15 at locations including A2 Newry Road, Kilkeel; A21 Main Street, Saintfield; A21 Saintfield Road, Ballynahinch; A25 Newtown Road, Belleek; A25 Castlewellan Road, Rathfriland and A27 Tandragee Road, Newry.”
However, Mr Richardson was then faced with an array of questions and comments from councillors at a special meeting for the Transport NI presentation at the council chamber in the Downshire Civic Centre last night (Wednesday 26 August).
Councillors’ Comments
Cllr Terry Hearty (Sinn Féin): “Will the absence of grass cutting and general maintenance lead to the closure of our rural roads? It’s as though rural people don’t exist anymore… I think resources are being badly managed… it is just an abandonment of rural Ireland. As councillors we have lobbied over recent years and this has just turned into a box ticking exercise. God help rural Ireland!” Simon Richardson said that if grass verges needed to be cut as an emergency then Transport NI would do its best to accommodate this. He said: “These important maintenance schemes have not been hidden below the radar. They will be attended to when the finding is available again.”
Cllr Mark Murnin (SDLP): “Are there plans to include farmers in winter gritting schemes? And what is happening with the Ballynahinch By-Pass?Also, can you clarify, can the DRD MInister agree to transfer funds from the capital to the resource budget in certain circumstances.” Mr Richardson said: “Firstly: “We have zero funding at the moment for resources but have the option to use local farmers as required. And we’ve seen the publication of draft orders for the By-Pass project we had a public consultation and now we are waiting to see if a public inquiry is required. Also, I will inquire about the matter of transferring funds. I am not aware of this.”
Cllr Declan McAteer (SDLP): “It would be better if you approached us as councillors when you have funds so we can help identify key projects to work on. We are well in touch with the constituents locally. We need a long term working group set up. We just can’t go on like this.” Mr Richardson responded by saying we do listen to people all the time and we do have priority lists to act on. Ultimately it is the decision of the engineers.”
Cllr Henry Reilly (UKIP): “I find it hard to understand why perfectly good lighting has to replaced as has happened in Kilkeel recently? Also, in terms of hedge cutting, there are significant problems due to the hedge cutting ban during the bird nesting season from and March to late in August. This is causing problems for farmers and it is difficult for them not to be accused of damaging the hedges. And if there are 500 Transport NI staff available, what are they doing?”
Mr Richardson replied saying: “Many people don’t realise that I can’t use money in a capital budget for resource issues. We are very short of resource funding. On occasions we can argue that funding is for capital costs, but we have to demonstrate engineering reasons and the likes of grass-cutting is not included in this. Replacing lighting is done for engineering and electrical reasons and our engineers have to make that call. Regarding our staff, they are dispersed over four divisions working, they are not sitting around.”
Cllr William Walker (DUP): “I am concerned about grass, trees and bushes covering important signage. People can claim to be speeding and say they never saw them as an excuse. Is there a duty of care in Transport NI to attend to this? We should be directing our criticisms really at Stormont for the lack of funding and not at the local roads officials.” Mr Richardson said: “We certainly will address any safety issues that come to our attention.”
Cllr Liz Kimmins (Sinn Féin): “I am very concerned about a busy narrow local road in my area where traffic can’t pass safely. It is just a matter of time before there is a serious accident or fatality. Cars are constantly colliding.” Mr Richardson agreed to follow up as he had no case details available.
Cllr Geraldine Donnelly (SDLP): “Can you update on the B30 near Lake End?” Mr Richarson explained he had no details available as the roads officer responsible was off on leave but would follow up.
Cllr Dermot Curran (SDLP): “Can you clarify if the plans for Downpatrick road improvements will go on display and if the public can input their views into this.” Mr Richardson said: “There would be a public display and consultation later in the year at a suitable centre in Downpatrick. All of the options will be displayed.”
Cllr Brian Quinn (SDLP): “The road from Warrenpoint to Newcastle is not fit for purpose. Much of the Irish Open traffic heading to the ROI went home on this road. There was a collapse on the Rostrevor road some time ago and a whole section of County Down was cut off. This road improvement should be a major project going forward. Is it in the pipeline?” Mr Richardson said that he had not been briefed on this as a key issue and would check it out.
Cllr Harry Harvey (DUP): “Can you explain at what stage the A7 road development is at the moment?” Mr Robertson said that “it is progressing well and should be completed by November 2015.”
Cllr Harold McKee (UUP): “I am concerned about the state of hedges along our country roads. Any hedge that is dangerous should be cut. I know of many drivers losing mirrors and some buses have had to replace mirrors at £700 a time. Basically our local rural residents feel as though they are being treated as second class citizens. Are they not entitled to a full service from Transport NI?”
“We can’t spend money on the resources budget filling potholes on lightly travelled roads at the minute as we have no funds and this includes verge and hedge maintenance,” explained Mr Richardson.
The local councillors had District Electoral Area meetings with the Transport NI officials prior to the special council meeting to discuss specific roads issues with them. Simon Richardson, Transport NI Divisional Manager, Southern Division, listened and responded to their queries.
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