Derry City and Strabane District Council have said that resurfacing works at the City Cemetery will begin very soon amid concerns over the impact potholes and other road defects are having on people visiting the facility.
During April’s Environment and Regeneration Committee meeting Sinn Féin councillor Emma McGinley said the council has been have been ‘very, very slow’ to implement plans to resurface roads and paths at the cemetery.
Last June £300,000 was allocated for resurfacing work at cemeteries across the district, and at last October’s Environment and Regeneration Committee meeting council’s Head of Environment, Conor Canning, told members that resurfacing work at the City Cemetery, as well as Ballyoan and Strabane cemeteries, would begin as soon as tendering and procurement processes were carried out.
At April’s Committee meeting, councillor McGinley asked for an update on the works, specifically at City Cemetery, as she had been ‘inundated by phone calls over the past couple of weeks’, with constituents asking when they were due to start.
“I know that because of the weather the potholes and everything there has become increasingly worse,” she added. “ I’m also aware that it was last year’s rates process that we approved the budget for that and it just seems to be a very, very slow process.
“With cemeteries being so close to people’s hearts, people want to be able to go and not be worried about losing the alloy of their car, so can we get an update on where that’s at and when we can expect that resurfacing work to happen, please?”
Mr Canning said all tenders had now been returned and they will be evaluated in the next week to ten days.
“As soon as that’s complete, we’ll be able to make an award and progress with the works as soon as afterwards,” he concluded.
There have been numerous concerns more generally about the state of road surfaces across the north west over recent years.
The ‘Journal’ recently revealed that an eye-watering two and a half million pounds was spent settling public liability claims resulting from road defects in Derry and Strabane over the past five years.
Figures from the Department for Infrastructure show that public liability expenditure for the Derry/Strabane district stood at £2,460,091.03 between 2020-21 and 2024-25, the last five full financial years.
