By Michael Devlin
THE DRD Roads Service budget for Tyrone is being slashed to benefit other areas within the Six Counties, a local councillor has claimed.
The SDLP's Pat McDonnell believes Tyrone is the forgotten county when it comes to spending money on vital repairs and improvements to the local roads network.
Speaking after the release of last year's roads casualty figures by the Department of the Environment (DOE), Cllr McDonnell wants to know why the local death toll has risen when the overall average has fallen.
According to the DOE and the PSNI, despite 2008 having the fewest number of road deaths in Northern Ireland since records began (106), carnage on the roads in Tyrone has continued to increase. Only the Cookstown area saw the number of road fatalities decrease from 2007 (three) in comparison with 2008 (two). The Omagh area had the same number of deaths in the past two years – seven in each – but Dungannon and Strabane saw the number of deaths increase from seven to eight and two to four, respectively.
"It seems to me that Tyrone appears to be suffering from a reduced roads maintenance," Cllr McDonnell. "For the past few years less money is being spent in upgrading and improving our county's roads and this is something I am highlighting again and again.
"I firmly believe that the Roads Service budget has been cut to benefit other places in the Six Counties and I feel sorry for Roads Service officials trying to stretch out the budget that they now have."
A total of 106 people were killed on the North's roads during 2008. This figure compares to 147 road deaths in 2004; 171 in 2000; 372 in 1974 and 114 when figures were first compiled in 1931.
Mr McDonnell continued, "106 people killed is 106 too many and this is nothing short of a tragedy.
"In the past I have informed Roads Service divisional manager Pat Doherty of dangerous places which need urgent attention - Badoney Road, Dromore is just one such place. There is a bad bend on the road and at the very least we need a crash barrier."
When contacted in relation to the matter, a spokesperson for Roads Service said, "Road maintenance funding for Tyrone is allocated on the same basis as for all other areas in the north.
"The outcome of the budget 2008-2009, announced on 22 January 2008, means that funding for roads structural maintenance is some £56.3 million, £71.8 million and £70.4 million per year during the three year budget period, totalling almost £200 million.
"Roads Service funding allocations are issued on a divisional basis to the four Roads Service Divisions, on the basis of need using a range of weighted indicators tailored to each maintenance activity, who in turn allocate it across district council areas. This ensures, as far as possible, an equitable distribution of road maintenance funding across the north."
