DUP weather motion carried

A DUP motion calling for inter-agency action to help alleviate the problems being experienced due to extreme weather was carried, with two amendments, at the latest full meeting of Derry City Council.

The motion was put forward by Gary Middleton, which called on Roads Service and NI Water “to give us assurances as to what steps and precautions are being taken to ensure that the difficulties that were experienced over the previous winter period do not re-occur again and that there are sufficient resources, manpower and supplies available in the Londonderry Council area if required to deal with the extreme weather conditions that we were faced with during the winter of 2010”.

Proposing the motion, Mr Middleton said that the winter people had experienced last year was not as expected, and while there was no way to control weather, he said people in positions to do something could ensure that they were prepared for extremes of weather in case the same occurred again this year.

he also highlighted the problems that arose because people were stealing salt and sand supplies: “While our Party welcomes the discussions between Roads Service and the Town Clerk’s office, regarding the salting of the city centre pavements, what can be done to prevent the stealing of salt from boxes that are meant for a certain area?

“Can we get assurances from these bodies that the rural areas such as Newbuildings, will have it’s school bus route salted and that the rural schools will not suffer as they did in the previous year,” Mr Middleton said.

He also asked what assurances Roads Service and NI Water could give, with the experience of hindsight with regard to the flooding of the past fortnight, when it came to the future preparations for flooding during periods of thaw and any future heavy rainfall.

Following a robust discussion, Mr Middleton agreed to drop the name ‘Londonderry’ from the original motion and agreed to add “the Housing Executive and other housing agencies”, the amended motion was unanimously carried.

“During the meeting I also asked what the agencies could put in place to ensure that the elderly population in sheltered and Fold Housing or outlying areas were not isolated by inclement weather, because these types of area, where there are high concentrations of elderly, are not automatically salted,” he said.

Mr Middleton said he looked forward to hearing the responses from the relevant authorities about the way ahead when it came to dealing with extreme weather conditions in the district and he thanked his fellow Aldermen and Councillors for supporting the motion.