HC Deb 24 May 1979 vol 967 cc1209-11
5. Mr. J. Enoch Powell

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the road programme announced for 1979–80 will be modified consequent upon additional expenditure to make good damage occasioned by the severe weather during the late winter; and if he will publish the details of any modifications.

The Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr. Philip Goodhart)

Fortunately, the damage caused by severe weather during the late winter was not so bad that any modifications to the major works programme are required. Divisional road managers are adjusting their maintenance and minor works programmes to give a proper priority to the repair of damage caused by the severe weather. I have spoken to the divisional roads managers at Craigavon and Downpatrick, and I shall write to the right hon. Gentleman about the maintenance and minor works programmes in the South Down area.

Mr. Powell

I am obliged to the hon. Gentleman, and I am glad that the interference with the programme is as minor as he suggests. Will he bear in mind that, where any modification has to be made to plans that have been announced to the district councils and the public, this should be done as soon and as frankly as possible? Will he also take note—I have placed one example before him—that the road service has not always been successful in repairing even major damage causing obstruction to the principal roads?

Mr. Goodhart

Yes, I shall bear that very much in mind. I think I am right in saying that in the right hon. Gentleman's area the damage covers about 10 per cent. of the minor roads programme. The bulk of the work should be completed by September.

Rev. Ian Paisley

Will the Minister bear in mind that it is not only in South Down that road damage has occurred and that he needs to have a look all over the Province where, because of severe frost, road surfaces have greatly deteriorated? Will he give an assurance that he will look at the whole Province in this context?

Mr. Goodhart

As I understand it, over the Province as a whole the damage caused amounts to about £4 million. It is particularly bad in the Lisburn area.

Mr. Skinner

Will the hon. Gentleman tell his colleagues in the various Government Departments throughout the United Kingdom that there has been severe weather in Derbyshire—indeed, in Bolsover—and in many other places? Is he aware that these problems will not go away, certainly not by having a freeze on manpower recruitment or by cuts in public expenditure? Is it not revealing that those two great apostles of free market forces—the hon. Member for Antrim, North (Rev. Ian Paisley) and the right hon. Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell)—are in favour of spending public money when it suits them, with the Tory Government seemingly willing to accede to their suggestions, but not when requests to do so come from the rest of the British Isles?

Mr. Goodhart

It is true that the programme of repairs is perhaps rather better advanced in Northern Ireland as a whole than it is in my own constituency.