Road maintenance funding cliff-edge threat could put lives at risk – Stewart
Road maintenance funding cliff-edge threat could put lives at risk – Stewart

Ulster Unionist Party Deputy chair of the Infrastructure Committee, John Stewart MLA, has raised serious concerns that warnings of the existing road maintenance funding being exhausted by November could put lives at risk.
Speaking after a presentation to the Infrastructure Committee by the Northern Ireland Mineral Products Association, Mr. Stewart commented.
“This briefing created a grave concern with the whole committee that funding for road maintenance could be exhausted by November unless the Department of Finance can allocate necessary additional funding urgently.
“The potential impact of having no budget, for even emergency road maintenance, in less than 8 weeks’ time, means that lives could be put at risk through dangerous road surfaces.
“It was clear in the presentation today that this is a recurring pressure which ultimately increases costs and decreases the ability to deliver a planned road maintenance schedule. The need for multi-year budgets was highlighted as the single most important action the Department can take to reduce this pressure.
“The unfortunate truth is that, due to the continued collapsing of the Assembly by the two largest parties, it has been impossible to create any long-term strategy. Every department and service is now suffering from the fact that we have had no functioning Assembly for five of the last seven years.
“We need to see decisive action from the Executive to ensure that what money is available in the next monitoring round is placed where it can make the most impact. We simply cannot allow essential road maintenance to be left unfunded.”