'SLIGHTLY less' is to be spent on Banbridge District's 1,000km-or-so of roads in the coming year and councillors have been warned the £4.2m budget won't cover their entire wish-list.
Southern Division Network Maintenance Manager Mr. Arnold Hamilton stressed the funding shortfall when delivering Roads Service's annual report to the council last week.
With insufficient resources and a limited budget, he said, structural maintenanc
e would remain Roads Service's top priority.
Urging the council to continue working in partnership with Roads Service, Mr. Hamilton asked that councillors recognise the agency had to prioritise works according to available funds and could not carry out all the work they might want done.
While Roads Service would continue to lobby for additional funds, he said, (last year it secured an extra £17m, of which £6m went to the Southern Division and £1m to the Banbridge area, allowing a considerable increase in resurfacing schemes) it currently faced a £46m shortfall on what it required for Northern Ireland overall.
And while the budget for the Banbridge area compared favourably to other areas, he said, the £4.2m (excluding major works) was slightly down (by about £100,000) on last year, reflecting a 24 per cent reduction in the structural maintenance budget within Northern Ireland.
Roads Service, he said, spent more on roads than would local authorities in England and it was held that the Province's roads were better maintained.
In any event, said Mr. Hamilton, Roads Service would certainly welcome the council's support in lobbying for additional funds.
Though the programme of works locally reflected the reduced funding, he added, a number of schemes were proposed and despite the challenges it faced, Roads Service would continue to concentrate on scheme delivery in the Banbridge area.
The full article contains 300 words and appears in Banbridge Leader newspaper.
