MLA expresses concern over roads

Mr Craig questioned Roads Minister Danny Kennedy during question time at the Assembly this week.

Mr Craig asked the Minister what impact the recent budget settlement will have on road maintenance budgets in the Lisburn area.

“My Department’s resource budget, which is used for the day-to-day maintenance of the road network, has been cut,” said Mr Kennedy. “This cut applies equally across the whole of Northern Ireland, including the Lisburn area. As a result, I had no option other than to take some tough decisions and stop issuing new work instructions to external contractors, who currently undertake around one quarter of our routine maintenance work and three quarters of the work required to repair street lighting faults.

“These have been difficult decisions to take, but they are necessary in order to try to protect areas, such as winter service, where withdrawal of our work would have an even greater impact on the Northern Ireland economy and the public.

“I will continue to press for moneys in October monitoring and later monitoring rounds to ensure that the resource budget is properly funded.”

Mr Craig responded: “That sounded like a statement from the Minister that the lights are going out all over Northern Ireland.”