Hearty frustrated with ‘lack of foresight’ from Roads Service officials

Sinn Féin Councillor Terry Hearty has spoken of his frustration when dealing with Roads Service officials and has slammed them for their ‘lack of foresight’

Speaking to Newry Times, Councillor Hearty said, “It would seem that common sense is a thing of the past. For the last few years I have been asking Roads Service to leave a load of grit in the Crossmaglen area in case of unexpected harsh weather.

“Roads Service has always said they couldn’t do this because there was not a secure area under council ownership in Crossmaglen where it could be safely stored for use on public roads and footpaths.

“So when the council bought the site for the new recycling facility in the town we specifically provided a secure place that was monitored by council staff where grit could be stored.

Hearty continued, “I contacted the local Roads Service office to ask them to leave out a load of grit so that the area would not be cut off if severe weather or snow hit. However, I was told that I would have to wait until such weather actually came before a load could be delivered.

“The problem is that when such weather comes Roads Service will be busy gritting the main network and may not have time to come to Crossmaglen, or, as happened a number of years ago, may not even be able to get out to the town. When I explained this the only reply I got was ‘that’s the criteria.’

“It would seem that common sense and foresight are as hard to find in our local Roads Service as grit is in Crossmaglen,” he added.

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Posted by Newry Times News on Dec 6 2012. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry