£19,397,000 roads spend highest in NI

ROADS Service spent £19,397,000 on new roads in Londonderry in 2008/9, the highest expenditure on a local road network in the whole of Northern Ireland. And over the past three years the body responsible for maintaining, upgrading and building our roads has spent a total of £48,628,000 in Londonderry.

Operation and maintenance spending on the local road network totalled 16,985,000. Capital spending on new builds amounted to 31,643,000. Roads Minister Conor Murphy provided the information in response to a question tabled at the Stormont Assembly.

He cautioned: “I should advise the Member that Roads Service does not simply split its total budget for capital expenditure on roads across all the district council areas.

“Major road improvements are prioritised on a countrywide basis, taking account of a broad range of criteria, such as strategic planning policy, traffic flow, number of accidents, potential travel save times, environmental impact, accessibility and value for money.

“While the actual spend on a major works scheme may be within one district council area, the benefits of such schemes are not confined to the district council, constituency or county in which they are located.