Hours after a picture of a child 'fishing' in a large pothole in Lisnaskea was published on the front page of last week’s (April 20) edition of The Impartial Reporter, the pothole was filled in.
A plea from residents was published in this newspaper on Thursday morning as they feared there would be substantial damage for passing vehicles – or possibly even an accident – if the pothole was not dealt with promptly.
Hitting out at the poor condition of roads right across Fermanagh, one concerned Lisnaskea resident said: “You would think we were in a Third World country with our roads.”
When asked by The Impartial Reporter on Wednesday morning had the pothole been identified as a hazard, and if any works would be completed on it, a Department for Infrastructure spokesperson said: “The Department has been operating in a challenging budgetary position for some time and this has had an impact on road maintenance activities and the overall condition of the road network.
“In compliance with Departmental policy, only the highest-priority defects are currently being repaired and, unfortunately, some defects will not be repaired until they meet the required intervention level.
“We will continue to routinely inspect Castle Lane in accordance with the Department’s maintenance inspection regime.”
Speaking to The Impartial Reporter after the pothole had been filled in, the Lisnaskea resident said: "They've now marked other holes out in the town, but I think it is only a temporary filling [in the Castle Lane pothole]."
She added: "I am not sure how long it it will last, but at least we don't have a hole any more."
Up until the pothole was filled in, the community had taken matters into their own hands, and some had used traffic cones in an attempt to fill or highlight the hole so that drivers’ wheels could avoid the pothole, and avoid causing damage to the car or further damage to the road.
The Lisnaskea resident said: “Someone had put a traffic cone in the hole, but someone then drove over it and the cone was all over the road. Only for the cone being there, you would be in the hole.”
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