Budget cuts leave Northern Ireland roads in sorry state

The roads in Northern Ireland bear the scars of years of underinvestment.

Long's Garage in Magheramason sits right on the A5 Londonderry to Strabane carriageway.

There's barely a week when mechanics there aren't dealing with pothole damage.

Garage manager Lennox Campbell says it's a real safety issue: "Damaged tyres, damaged rims, and after that there's a multitude of things that can go wrong.

“You can damage steering, suspension, or worse case scenario you can cause an accident. If somebody hits a pothole hard enough and loses control, where do you go from there?"

When UTV arrived at the garage, mechanic Steven Barr was dealing with a damaged van tyre: "A customer came in this morning and his tyre was completely out of shape.

“It was caused by a pothole. It damaged the wire in the tyre. It's completely warped. When you blow it up there's just a big bump there. It's unusable and unsafe. It's just scrap now."

Figures from the Department for Infrastructure show the number of road repairs from the past six months that haven't been done across the whole of Northern Ireland.

The total is £11,958.

The repair programme can be divided into council areas, and it's Ards and North Down that has the fewest outstanding road repairs - just 263. But Derry City and Strabane Council tops this unwanted hit parade with 3,199 outstanding repairs.

Those who drive for a living in the north west are angry.

Eamonn O'Donnell, manager of North West Taxi Proprietors, says: "Taxi drivers are constantly complaining to us about the poor state of the roads, about the potholes, about the unkempt roads.

"People are having blow-outs. It's costing taxi drivers money, it's putting them off the road."

The Department for Infrastructure admits that it is battling historic under-investment in roads maintenance, but the shortfall is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

With budget cuts and a financial crisis, the road ahead promises a bumpy ride.