Roads maintenance work operating at just three-quarters of normal levels as a result of Stormont budget cuts

Roads maintenance work – including repairing of potholes – is operating at just three-quarters of normal levels as a result of Stormont budget cuts.

Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy warned that the failure to maintain roads will cost the public purse even more in the long run.

The Ulster Unionist minister said he had axed all work for external contractors, which has cut back on footway and carriageway patching, grass-cutting, gully-emptying and traffic sign maintenance and replacement.

At question time in the Assembly yesterday, he further revealed that almost 8,000 street lights across the province are currently out and have not been repaired.

Mr Kennedy also argued it was "bonkers" that his department was expected to make huge in-year savings at this late stage in the financial year.

The minister said his departmental staff will "endeavour" to keep road conditions as safe as possible.

But he pointed out that the reality was they had only the resources to provide three-quarters of the normal service.

The DUP's Sydney Anderson said the minister's statistics were "alarming" and needed to be addressed urgently. He argued the failure to repair potholes will only lead to more accidents and therefore more insurance claims.

Mr Kennedy responded: "I do believe that these cuts and these savings... have the potential to cost even more in the future and that does not make good economic sense."

He said his department was "patching over" poor financial management at the centre of the Executive and the failure to implement welfare reform.

He was asked by former Finance Minister Sammy Wilson whether core areas of his department should be financed "on a wing and a prayer" of when money might become available in spending rounds.

Mr Kennedy replied: "In the not too distant past Mr Wilson was Finance Minister and operated the system that I have inherited and tried to make best use of.

"We would be better planning at the earlier stage, which would give us better value for money and more bang for our buck.

"I am glad now that he is out of office the former Finance Minister recognises that."

Quizzed by Sinn Fein's Phil Flanagan, Mr Kennedy denied he had gone for the "soft touch" options rather than, for example, getting rid of traffic wardens.

"These are not decisions I have taken lightly or would have wanted to have done," Mr Kennedy said. "The only solution to me was to cut back in the use of external contractors, which is not without impact on those businesses and of course employees."

In an earlier debate yesterday on the roads maintenance budget, brought by the SDLP, Mr Kennedy added: "I have looked carefully at the running costs that are necessary to manage, maintain and develop our road network.

"Of the £125m of funding that is available to me to meet annual running costs, over £100m is contractually or otherwise committed. It cannot therefore be cut in-year."

Background

In June the Department for Regional Development told the Executive it needed £48.4m on current expenditure and £130.3m on capital. But it recieved just £5m on the expenditure side — allocated for concessionary fares for senior citizens — and £26.3m for capital, making a shortfall of £147.4m.

Belfast Telegraph