Poots hits out over lack of road gritting

Lagan Valley MLA Edwin Poots has accused TransportNI of 'falling asleep at the wheel' after it failed to grit a number of roads in the Lisburn and Moira areas last Friday night (November 18).

By The Newsroom

Published 23rd Nov 2016, 17:26 BST

Updated 29th Nov 2016, 10:41 BST

The DUP man said he had received reports of a number of traffic accidents on main and rural roads in the area on Saturday morning due to icy road conditions.

“I think somebody fell asleep at the wheel on that one,” he commented. “The roads weren’t gritted on Saturday morning and there was a lot of black ice about. They were gritted on Saturday night for the Sunday morning, but that’s not good enough.

“The weather forecast had given a cold snap, so TransportNI should have responded accordingly,” he added.

At the time of publication, no one at TransportNI was available to comment on the claims made by Mr Poots.