Councillors have bemoaned the “abominable” number of “crater” sized potholes that are popping up all over Fermanagh during a lengthy discussion at Enniskillen Townhall.
Democratic Unionist Councillor Paul Robinson said the road network across the county is in “an awful state” and appealed for the Department for Infrastructure to step in and fix the potholes.
“I have never seen them as bad, no matter what road you go on it’s not potholes, it is craters,” said Councillor Robinson. 
“It’s got to be abominable,” said the SDLP’s Patricia Rogers. “Cars are being wrecked. I know young drivers who just got their test, their tyres are being wrecked, as well as our own,” she said.
Councillor Rogers said it has now got to the stage “where we can’t accept it for much longer” and added: “It’s time we stood up, maybe they [the Department for Infrastructure] can’t hear us.”
“The roads are getting worse,” said Ulster Unionist Councillor Alex Baird. “It’s becoming a danger when we are driving along we are usually looking for twists in the roads, we now have to look for potholes. But on a wet day you don’t know if you are hitting a puddle, a pothole or a pitch shaft,” he said, stating that without a functioning Executive “there’s going to be no decisions.”
Chief Executive Brendan Hegarty told the Council that he had a conversation with Mr. Conor Loughrey, the Divisional Roads Manager of the Department for Infrastructure, who explained that the deterioration in the condition of the road network has been down to the recent weather “combined with a lack of funding.”
This has resulted in a “significant number of potholes” which Mr. Loughrey said were being dealt with by his staff. The work has been largely focused on “heavily trafficked roads” with the plan to move onto “lesser trafficked roads” and this will be the case until at least the end of the financial year depending, according to Mr. Loughrey, on the level of funding that is available from April 1.
“It’s beyond belief the state our roads are in,” said Democratic Unionist Raymond Farrell. “In my lifetime I have never seen things as bad. I had to go out the other night to my daughter who hit a pothole and burst a wheel at half 11 at night. If nobody comes down here I am prepared to take a car load up, avoiding the potholes, to Stormont to get answers because this can’t go on,” he said.