Feeling 'alienated and abandoned'

Feeling 'alienated and abandoned'

""We all pay our rates and our taxes but we are at the far flung corner of the empire here and we're being forgotten about.""

Published Date: 07 January 2010
By Kevin Mullan

A LONDONDERRY man on dialysis was forced to drive home from hospital as taxi-drivers are fearful of tackling the icy roads near his home.
There was a palpable sense of anger and frustration amongst the rural community this week at Roads Service's concentration on gritting the busier traffic routes to the detriment of isolated parts as freezing conditions descended on Londonderry.
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ore resident Robert Black is recovering from a recent heart operation as well as attending dialysis treatment in Altnagelvin Area Hospital three times a week.
He told the Sentinel that Roads Service had not treated the treacherous Forge Road in Ardmore, where he lives, until Monday.
Taxi-drivers had been refusing to drive up the dangerous stretch of road to his home over the Christmas period and this had forced him to take his jeep as far as the main road in order to keep vital dialysis appointments at Altnagelvin.
"The taxi-men have been refusing to come up," said Mr Black. "No salt had been left out on the road and they don't want to come up.
"It's been with some difficulty getting out. I've got the jeep and gone up to meet them but I had a heart valve replaced recently and shouldn't really be doing it. But what can you do?" he added.
Mr Black said that after undergoing the gruelling treatment he has had to get a taxi back to his jeep and drive the treacherous Forge Road to his home.
The Ardmore man is not alone. Many people living in rural areas have struggled to access vital amenities over the Christmas period due to the horrendous condition of the untended country roads.
Mrs Middleton lives on the Terrydreen Road outside Feeney with her 96-year-old mother who is deaf and blind and requires around the clock care. Carers normally attend her home four times a day but not this Christmas period.
"My mother is deaf and blind and it really takes two people to work with her. I'm just out of hospital and I'm not really fit on my own. What if something was to happen to me?" she asked.
"I have actually fallen on the road myself and injured my leg," she added.
Reggie Hamilton lives on the Kildoag Road and said he felt as if the rural community had been abandoned by the Government.
"Where we are there are hills and you would need a sleigh," said Mr Hamilton. "They've put some salt on it but I've seen more on a dinner plate and I'm not being sarcastic - I've got asthma and my wife is on oxygen and people need to be able to get in and out."
"What if the machine was to break down?" he asked. "We all pay our rates and our taxes but we are at the far flung corner of the empire here and we're being forgotten about."
He added: "It is not as if salt is a perishable commodity. They should not run out."
John Henry is a neighbour of Robert Black. He has called on Roads Service to take decisive action by leaving sufficient salt stocks at rural drop off points for local farmers and residents to apply themselves.
"We would like - before the storm sets in - to have a few good piles of salt left about every quarter of a mile here," said Mr Henry. "There has been no salt piles left on this (the Forge Road) at all and this road is two miles long.
"From that bush (a mile distant) the road starts to go down the hill and that is lethal. It is lethal. And there is an old quarry over there. "Early on - if they were to leave a good pile of salt in it - the farmers could come along and lift it and do the dangerous bits," he proposed.DUP Alderman and Deputy Mayor Maurice Devenney said there was a strong sense of abandonment in the rural community and that people are very angry.
"Serious concerns must be raised about this. I appreciate we have had adverse weather conditions but Roads Service could at least do something to help these areas," said Mr Devenney.
"Twenty or thirty people have come to me over the last week and they are seriously, seriously angry people because they pay the same rates, the same road tax, but they do not get the same standard when it comes from the Roads Service. They feel totally alienated and abandoned. I'll tell you. They do leave out some very small amounts of salt. But the amounts are too small. It is a token gesture."
UUP Alderman Mary Hamilton said: "I have been on the phone constantly talking to people who are concerned that the roads are treacherous out round the Kildoag Road area and out round Claudy. Even in pockets of the city there were parks that were not salted or gritted and never thawed all week.
"I think the Roads Service needs to think about investing in salt boxes which they could leave on the side of the road so that people can salt the roads themselves. I would like them to take this project on. Too much money is being spent on things that are not essential and a proper action plan needs to be put in place for next year."
A spokesperson for DRD Roads Service said: "The roads mentioned are not on the main salted network however Roads Service personnel have attended the Lisdillon Road to leave salt piles.
"Grit piles and salt boxes have been filled in the weeks leading up to the current freeze and there was an unprecedented demand for both.
"In some places Roads Service has encountered the problem of substantial loss of salt from urban boxes and grit from local piles, apparently for use on private property and not on the public roads for which they had been provided.
"Numerous people contacted Roads Service over the period to complain about salt boxes and grit piles being raided and not used at their intended location."
The spokesperson added: "It is Roads Service's policy to salt main through routes carrying more than 1,500 vehicles per day and other busy through routes carrying more than 1,000 vehicles per day, where there are difficult circumstances, such as steep hills.
"Efforts are also made to ensure that small settlements of more than 100 dwellings have a treated link to the salted network and consideration is given to placing grit piles or salt bins at hills, bends or junctions on roads that are not salted.
"During long periods of heavy snowfall and ice, maximum effort will be concentrated on the key traffic routes. Clearing snow from motorways and the trunk roads will be given priority, before moving to other main roads and the busiest urban link roads.
"The salted network is around 7,000 km (4,300 miles) and covers 80 per cent of traffic in the north. Roads Service's resources are targeted on busier routes carrying most traffic and while we can understand the concerns of those who use the more lightly trafficked roads that are not included in the salted network, it is simply not possible to salt all roads."

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