IT MAY be hard to believe, but the local area had one of the largest resource budgets for road repairs and improvements in the North in the past year.
According to figures from the Department of Infrastructure’s (DfI) Roads Service, Fermanagh and Omagh was allocated a total resource budget of £7.9 million in 2022/23.
That was the third largest of all 11 local government district areas in the North. Only Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, with £9.6 million, and Belfast City Council, with £12 million, were allocated a larger resource budget.
The £7.9 million allocation was also a significant increase on previous years, having steadily grown from the £5.8 million allocated to the local area in 2016/17.
The figures, which were part of a large volume of other data, were revealed in a letter from DfI permanent secretary Dr Denis McMahon in a letter to Fermanagh and Omagh Council, due to be delivered to members at the December meeting last night (Tuesday).
Dr McMahon had been responding to a request from the Council for a breakdown of the DfI roads budget for the last ten years.
The Council had also queried the status of the resurfacing contract in Fermanagh, asking if a contractor was in place and if unspent funding for the county had remained in the county.
Dr Mahon confirmed the resurfacing contract had been awarded to FP McCann in March this year.
He added, however, “While the Department was awaiting the award of the asphalt resurfacing contract, the resurfacing budget for Fermanagh was reallocated to other term contracts in the area which were in operation.
“The Department was able to spend its allocated budget through the Small Scales Contract, Environmental Contract and Road Marking Contract.
“Arrangements were also made to spend funding for Fermanagh through our internal workforce on operations such as surface dressing and local drainage works.”
Dr Mahon concluded, “I would like to assure the members of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council that every effort was made by the Department to keep the resurfacing budget allocation within the Fermanagh and Omagh area.”
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