TUV Leader and North Antrim parliamentary candidate Jim Allister has hit out at the lack of expenditure on the upkeep of rural roads and their resulting dangerous condition.
 
Commenting after a week in which a young motorcylist died near Cullybackey, Mr Allister said:

"The extent to which our rural roads have been allowed to deteriorate over this winter is quite appalling, with the Roads Service response being wholly inadequate. The road maintenance budget seems to be strapped for cash by its Sinn Fein Department, DRD, which can waste hundreds of thousands of pounds each year on needless translation into Irish, and now on Irish classes, but won't spend the money needed to keep our roads safe. We've just seen £20m gifted to the Irish language while frontline need, like upkeeping our roads, goes unmet. It's time this failing government got its priorities right."
 
The TUV leader continued:
"How much taxpayers' money was spent last week on a USA jaunt by not one, but 5 Ministers, and their huge entourage of staff and special advisers, yet, money can't be found to fix our roads? The number of potholes and dangers posed, particularly to motorcyclists, is out of control, yet under this Stormont regime it seems they'd rather waste money on an American jamboree than make our roads safe."