Roads Service responds on pothole issue

I refer to your story published on March 1 - ‘Public pressure spurs Roads Service to mend pothole hell’ - in relation to resurfacing work carried out by Roads Service on the private road leading to Orritor Road Retail Park in Cookstown.

The focus of the piece suggests that public pressure on Roads Service alone led to having this situation successfully resolved.

While Roads Service is grateful to the public for alerting us to the state of the road, a great deal of effort was necessary to resolve the issue.

The road in question is the sole responsibility of the developer and maintenance only falls to Roads Service when it is adopted into the public road network. The developer may or may not have received a similar number of complaints.

However, having been made aware of the issue, Roads Service proactively engaged with the developer to have a resolution reached as early as possible.

While Roads Service was in a position to undertake the work necessary in conjunction with a scheduled major improvement scheme at the adjacent Orritor Street and Orritor Road, the additional work could only be begin once an undertaking was received from the developer to meet the additional cost.

Roads Service can fully understand the frustration that everyone using the road shared, however, it was only once this agreement was firmly in place that Roads Service was in a position to act.

Roads Service acted correctly and in good faith for the benefit of the public. By taking a commonsense approach Roads Service ensured that the developer met his responsibilities without cost to the public purse.

I trust this gives your readers a fuller understanding of the situation.

Robin Cuddy

Roads Service Section Engineer

Cookstown & Magherafelt Section