§ MR. GLENDINNING (Antrim, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Local Government Board are about to reinstate the original scheme of main roads in county Antrim; that in this they are acting against public opinion; and that the county council rejected main roads by a large majority; and whether, in the interest of outlying districts, who are compelled to pay for the up-keep of roads they never use, he will take steps to secure that main roads should be abolished.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) 1. After careful consideration of the evidence adduced at the local inquiry, the Local Government Board have decided to reinstate the original scheme of main roads in county Antrim. 2. The county council, by a majority of seventeen to nine, resolved to have no main roads in future, but there were appeals from five district councils against this decision. 860 There is some doubt as to the legality of a declaration to the effect that no roads should be main roads. 3. There are no means of apportioning the charge for road maintenance upon the basis of user of the roads. Where, as in Belfast rural district, road maintenance is expensive owing to a large volume of the rough traffic passing to and from a great business centre, the whole burden cannot equitably be imposed upon the ratepayers of the district immediately adjoining such centre, and as a remedy the Local Government Act of 1898, Section 8, provides for a moiety of the cost being distributed over the whole county.