DUP ALDERMAN William Hay has claimed that Newbuildings residents are being treated like "second class citizens" with regard to the state of the walkways in the village.
Describing the state of the footpaths in the district as "horrendous" Mr Hay said that a scheme set in place to resolve the issue a decade ago has still not been completed.
"DRD-Roads Service keep telling us that they are encountering a problem. A
fter ten years this is hardly an excuse. They agreed there would be a scheme to replace the paths and it has still not been done," he said.
The DUP man also said that he and representatives agreed that the scheme should be done in sections as the money to complete the entire project was not available at one time.
However, now that the scheme has still not been completed, Mr Hay said: "I will now really pressurise Road Services to complete this project. I will be speaking to senior representatives at the department with regard to this.
"These footpaths are dangerous and will cause someone to be seriously hurt or injured. The grass and weeds are growing up between them, they are not even being treated with weedkiller."
In response a spokesperson for DRD Road Services told the Sentinel: "Over the past five years Roads Service has spent over £125k upgrading the footways and street lighting in the Primity Crescent area of Newbuildings. Additional street lighting work has just been completed and subject to anticipated funding being made available, another phase of footway resurfacing is planned to be carried out in the area during the 2010/11 financial year.
"A carriageway resurfacing scheme in Rock Park was also completed very recently.
"Roads Service spray all public roads and footways twice a year.
"However in order for the weedkiller to be effective some weed growth is needed to assess the effectiveness of the treatment. If it rains shortly after application the weedkiller solution may be diluted or even washed off. In such circumstances our weed spraying contractor is instructed to retreat the area."
