Published: Thursday, 22nd July, 2010 4:00pm

Another pothole to look into

by Editorial Department

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Our roads are really deteriorating when you see vehicles avoiding potholes.

That's certainly happening at the junction of Queen Street with Ann Street and Castle Street in Enniskillen, where a deep hole has developed just at the point where vehicles turning sharply from Ann Street into Queen will be driving.

In fact this hole was so deep that our photographer was virtually able to set his camera into it to take the remarkable photograph on Page 5 of this week's issue.

But of course this is not the only extent of poor surfaces on our roads. It's happening countywide as well as Northern Irelandwide.

What do tourists and visitors to our county think?

We all know what the local think of the state of the roads.

This week, contractors were re-surfacing a stretch of roadway at The Brook, which quite rightly needed a better surface as it brings many people to the popular Round O for boat trips, etc. A casual observer would say its a pity they didn't have a little bit over to patch this hole. But this particularly junction at the top of Queen Street leaves many problems for heavy goods vehicles, which has over time, worn away the tarmac to leave this deep hole.

Some of the roads through the county town are suffering, basically because of the heavy goods traffic and the increased numbers of vehicles which have to pass through it as they have no alternative. A bypass would take away many of these vehicles who have no direct business in the town centre. If the bypass is not going to be built for another five to 10 years, then can we surely not have the existing roads kept up to even a reasonably standard?

Road maintenance schemes do create employment, directly and indirectly, supporting our local quarry industries.

I think most motorists would gladly put up with diversions and temporary tailbacks if they were sure they were going to get better roads.