Roads boss tells councillors maintenance will be constrained but TNI plans meeting essential safety requirements

TransportNI's Western Divisional Roads Manager Conor Loughrey has advised members of Derry City and Strabane District Council that while recent progress on the flagship A5 and A6 projects has been pleasing routine road maintenance programmes will continue to be constrained as a result of the Department for Infrastructure's reduced budget.

Mr. Loughrey made the comments while briefing a special meeting of the council's Environment and Regeneration Committee, on the DfI Roads Western Division Spring Report for 2017 this afternoon.

"The indicative budget outlined by the Secretary of State in April does mean that there are likely to be knock-on impacts for services including routine maintenance of the road network and in this area, the Department is likely to be reliant on additional resources becoming available.

"We understand the implications of the limited service and its long term impacts on the network and we are doing our best to deliver routine maintenance within the allocated budget.

"The Department's objective is to continue to deliver routine road maintenance services at the current level for as long as possible.

"While services are being constrained, we are planning to meet all essential public safety requirements," he said.