To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to detail (i) whether her Department is able to adopt ownership of a busy but damaged road of indeterminate ownership; and (ii) to outline what happens to such roads if they continue to deteriorate.

My Department is not responsible for maintaining roads which are not within its ownership and will generally only adopt roads that have been brought up to standard either by developers through the Private Streets Determination process or by the owners and/or frontagers in accordance with Article 9 of the Private Streets Order.

The Department would not be in a position to adopt and repair other damaged roads that are currently unadopted; responsibility for their repair would remain with the frontagers or landowners and even if land ownership is unknown, my Department could not take over such a responsibility.

While I understand there would be a desire from frontagers on private roads and lanes to have improvement works carried out by my Department, this is simply not feasible due to the current budget position and the many other competing pressures facing my Department.