Potholes on the Derryclawan Road just outside Enniskillen
THE AGENCY responsible for maintaining our roads has defended its record on repairing potholes. As the number of complaints from local motorists sky rockets, it claims roads are not being repaired on Fermanagh’s roads due to the ‘current budgetary shortfall for routine maintenance work.’
The Department for the Environment has said that they must ‘prioritise repair’ when it comes to fixing the potholes in the county. A Newtownbutler resident, Gary Johnston, recently made a complaint about a patch of road about a quarter of a mile from Newtownbutler High Street, coming up to Camphill. He explained that there was about seven potholes in the area.
“There are potholes all over the road, and there is one pothole that would be the length of a van or a car. They are papering over cracks, rather than fixing it. I wonder why I am paying road tax at all.” said Gary.
The response from the Department explained that the budgetary shortfall is preventing them from carrying out maintenance work and repair will be prioritised. The number of vehicle damage claims lodged with the Department of Infrastructure (DfI) in the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) area was 12,500 during 2016/17.
Another motorist, Michelle Duffy is fed up with the current state of the road outside her mother’s house as within the past three weeks three window screens have been cracked.
“Outside my Mum’s house there are several patches on the road where the surface has been worn away leaving the start of large holes in the road. Every car passing is sending stones all over mum’s street, and even as far in as onto her window sills. She lives on the Shore Road between Belleek and Enniskillen, approximately eight miles from Belleek. The Cars parked at the house are being hit with stones and last week alone we have had three cracked window screens.”
Figures released by the Department of Infrastructure reveal that there is 70 potholes on the Shore Road.
Michelle continued, “the whole Shore road from Belleek to Enniskillen is in a terrible state, it has been like this for weeks. It is a nightmare travelling into Enniskillen as you can not avoid some of the potholes unless you go onto the other side of the road.
“I did speak to a local councillor a few weeks back referring to a very bad patch of road and within a few days this area was fixed up, but there is so many more needs addressed! Its not just this main road, there seems to be so many roads in a very similar state,” said Michelle.
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