Strategic salt box approach needed

The local representative said she was contacted by a number of concerned residents in Blackthorn Manor in the Crescent Link area during last week's cold snap.

She stated: "More needs to be done by DRD Roads Service to follow up on private developers who abandon the people who buy the houses in their developments by not providing them with salt boxes or grit.

"The residents of Blackthorn Manor are facing their sixth winter with no access to salt boxes or gritting.

"Every year they face the misery of being virtual prisoners in their own homes, unable to get in or out of the development- last weekend was particularly trying when a car lost control and ended up in the garden of one of the houses.

"The situation is beyond intolerable and the SDLP will continue to lobby to ensure that this situation comes to a positive conclusion for the residents of Blackthorn Manor and all other private developments where the developer has not, for whatever reason completed the development to the satisfaction of Road Services.

"The SDLP mandated Derry City Council at the October 2010 Planning Committee to write to DRD to clarify this very situation and we will be following this up as a matter of urgency."