North's Infrastructure Minister announces road repair fund

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

An additional £8.1 million (€9.48 million) will be spent on repairing the North's road network this year.

Northern Ireland Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd said the capital investment is “vital”.

The Sinn Féin minister said: “Due to a decade of Tory cuts and austerity, and the budgetary constraints faced by my department, the initial capital allocation regrettably fell well short of the amount necessary to maintain the road network to the required standard.

“I recently addressed the Assembly to announce the allocation of an extra £1 million to target areas of highest priority with small scale resurfacing schemes, designed to repair areas that have suffered the most and where localised repairs are less effective.

“I am now in a position to announce an additional £8.1 million of funding for my department’s structural maintenance programme to deliver additional resurfacing schemes and continue to address the poor condition of our road network.

“This investment has been made possible through a combination of additional funding from the Executive supplemented by a reallocation within my department.

“Work will start immediately on the planning and delivery of these new schemes.”