Mr. John D. TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what are the arrangements for salting Manse road, Castlereagh; what account is taken of whether the road is used by school buses in making such arrangements; what was the cost of salting Manse road(a) in 1995–96 and (b) in 1996–97; and if he will make a statement. [8337]
§ Mr. MossResponsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Roads Service under its chief executive, Mr. W. J. McCoubrey. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from G. P. Fraser to Mr. John D. Taylor, dated 11 December 1996:
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has asked the Chief Executive of Roads Service to reply to your question about arrangements for salting Manse Road, Castlereagh. In the Chief Executive's absence I am responding on his behalf.There are 2 Manse Roads in Castlereagh—the C369 which runs from the Four Winds roundabout to the Ballygowan Road, and the U193 which runs from the Clontonacally Road to the Saintfield Road. During periods of ice and snow the C369 is salted along its 353W entire length together with the section of the U 193 from Cadger Road to Saintfield Road. The recent review of the gritted network had no effect on either of these roads.While school bus routes are not automatically salted Roads Service applies a weighting factor for buses when assessing the traffic flow on each route. By way of illustration, a 40 seater bus is considered equivalent to 20 cars.The estimated cost of salting these roads was as follows:
Financial year C369 £ U193£ 1995–96 1,000 680 1996–97 (to date) 380 260 I hope you find this information helpful.