FERMANAGH and Omagh District Councillor, Sheamus Greene, has likened potholes in his constituency to a ‘moonscape’.

The Sinn Féin councillor is calling on the Department of Infrastructure to look at its policy of road inspections and the criteria for filling potholes.
“There are potholes on local roads that were reported months ago, which haven’t been filled yet,” he said, “Department officials are telling me that even when potholes are reported they will not be fixed until the road is inspected which can be anything up to six months away.

“It is a total disgrace that this is the situation we find ourselves in. There are roads in my local area that are like a moonscape and I would be surprised if there are worse in third world Countries. The Tattenabuddagh Road near Coonian must be one of the worst in Fermanagh and the condition of this road is unbelievable for a so called advanced Country!  
“Then there are large potholes, like the one on the Grogey road which even when inspected will not be fixed because ‘it isn’t deep enough’ even though it is half the width of the road! 

“The senior officials in the Department who make up these rules need to get out of their offices a bit more and live in the real world where people are having their vehicles destroyed driving over these potholes daily.”
The councillor accused the Department of spending money on ‘vanity projects’.

“The Department of Infrastructure seems to have plenty of money to rebrand itself. In 2014 it was called Road Service, they then spend untold sums of money to rebrand its name to Transport NI. This name lasted 18 months before another large sum of money was spent rebranding its name to The Department of Infrastructure. How many potholes would all this rebranding nonsense have filled?”