Ardmore road rage

The concerned resident is also worried lorries carrying material to a wind turbine development in the area will do nothing to improve the condition of the local roads.

Roads Service says it is continuing to resurface areas of the Bigwood Road badly affected by the recent freezing conditions and that this will continue over the coming weeks. The road authority is also monitoring the affect haulage to the wind farm is having on the road surface.

During heavy rainfall in January residents of the Bigwood Road on the outskirts of Londonderry feared a life could be lost if action was not taken to address serious flooding.

Former DUP councillor John Henry told the Sentinel the road was awash with surface water anytime there was a torrential downpour and that this created treacherous driving conditions for passing motorists.

The 78-year-old said despite improvements made along the stretch of the road - the drains were lowered by Roads Service so surface water could easily be carried away - the road is still flooding due to drainage pipes being too narrow.

The flooding was particularly bad following a recent thaw that hit this part of rural Londonderry severely.

He also said parts of the road are ravaged with potholes and he fears this is bound to get worse with convoys of trucks using the area to deliver material to the site of a proposed wind farm nearby.

Mr Henry, who has lived in the area for most of his life, says there are sections of the road he is convinced have never being tended by the public authorities during his lifetime.

"The problem is ongoing," he said. "They were to put in bigger pipes but what they did was lower the gratings. I've never known water to rise up from a road into a drain."

"Previously they had been two inches higher than the road and in fairness they have been out and have lowered the drains. But they have not done the job they said they were going to do," he added.

The concerned resident says the 12 inch drainage pipes laid along the road are incapable of taking the excess water that flooded the thoroughfare during torrential rainfall last November and hillside thaws in January and last fortnight.

Said Mr Henry: "They promised me they would replace the pipes and widen them but they haven't done that."

He also called into question the method being used to repair potholes in the area saying he believed Roads Service have been out at least four times since Christmas backfilling the same craters on multiple occasions.

"What they used to do was cut up the section of road and re-surface," he said. "But now they seem to be coming out and just filling the potholes in. With all these lorries coming through to the wind turbine I shudder to think what the road will look like in bad weather.

"We have to pay our road taxes? I think they should pay us to live up here. My car is clattered with tar."

DUP Alderman Maurice Devenney said the re-repair of the same potholes calls into question the use of taxpayers' money.

"Speaking to the residents of the area I understand this is the third time the same pothole has been repaired," said Alderman Devenney. "Now if the job was done right the first time they wouldn't have to come back to it. I would question the use of taxpayers' money in this."

He added: "The issue of gullies on rural areas of Londonderry is something I've been raising over the past five years. There has been a bit of progress but DRD Roads Service needs to address the problem throughout the entire rural road network."

A spokesperson for DRD Roads Service responded: "Resurfacing those parts of the Bigwood Road most affected by the recent freezing weather will be carried out shortly.

"Roads Service will continue to monitor the area for possible inclusion in future resurfacing schemes, however these programmes are implemented on a priority basis, subject to the availability of financial resources.

"Regarding the drainage works, they are not yet complete and again further works are proposed in the near future. In relation to the additional traffic resulting from the proposed wind farm Roads Service will be monitoring this closely and any damage caused by haulage to the wind farm will be repaired at the expense of the wind farm developers."