Sinn Fein Councillor John Feely has called on the Road Service to put a plan of action in place to prevent the flooding that was witnessed in Fermanagh before Christmas.
A LOCAL councillor has urged Roads Service to ‘sort out’ areas prone to flooding in the county.
‘Hotspots’ across the county fell victim to flooding in recent weeks including across Boho, Kesh and Ederney.
Sinn Fein’s John Feely said that he felt that Enniskillen was taking precedence from Roads Service in when it comes to dealing with floods – and rural areas are losing out.
“I remember just a couple of years ago when there was major flooding occurring in Enniskillen, the speed at which the problems were fixed. I think that the rural road users should expect the same quick response,” said Councillor Feely.
“If anything, it should be a more urgent matter as the likelihood of serious risk is greater on country roads compared to the problems in Enniskillen because you can be travelling at greater speeds on open roads and come on the floods quicker.”
Councillor Feely also said that he appreciated the work that the road service has done in the run up to Christmas – but he said that more needs to be done.
“I have called on Roads Service to put a plan of work together to ensure that any work that needs to be done to these flood hot-spots is carried out as soon as possible.
“They are well aware of all the locations around the county that have a high risk of flooding and that pose a risk to road users. Now is the time to sort out these problems.”
A DRD spokesman said: “Transportni welcomes the appreciation for the work carried out by its staff in the lead up to Christmas in dealing both with flooding and frost. It most cases it was a matter of placing warning signs on the hazzard until resources were available to excavate or investigate more fully the cause of the problem.
“These locations are now being followed up on a priority basis with a view to resolving the outstanding problems within the next two weeks.
“In 2009 the flooding at Quay Pass in Enniskillen was causing total gridlock right through the town leaving emergency services with severe access problems and no alternative routes. The rural roads affected on this occasion all have alternative routes.”
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