Roads Service: Proposed 'temporary' closure threatens depot

It is understood that Roads Service has proposed to temporarily merge the workloads at four different depots across Northern Ireland.

One proposal from Roads Service is the amalgamation of the depot at Silverhill, Enniskillen and the depot at Arvalee, Omagh basing staff in a single workshop in Omagh and using the Enniskillen site as a satellite.

The plans came to light when a letter from Unite the Union and GMB Trade Union was sent to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.

At the Council on Tuesday [June 5] the Grange, Omagh, Erne East Sinn Féin Councillor Sheamus Greene voiced his concern with the proposal.

He said: “This is extremely concerning that we could be losing this facility from Fermanagh, I remember when they removed Brookeborough depot they said it would have no consequences on what was happening in the area, and it certainly did. There was less work done around the Erne East area as a consequence.

“What exactly are the consequences for Fermanagh, I know they will come back and say there are no consequences but they are again coming back and closing services in Fermanagh. I think we should strongly oppose this as a council.”

At the top of the debate, Chief Executive Alison McCullough had suggested that the Council write to the Department for Infrastructure for clarification on the issue.

Erne West SDLP Councillor Adam Gannon rejected this idea when he seconded Councillor Greene’s proposal and said: “I don’t think there is a need to clarify to come to a position on this.

Adam Gannon (Image: John McVitty)

“We have already talked at length tonight about DFI and their management of the roads.

“I can imagine this will be put forward as a “temporary” change that is not really temporary, that is a staging until it is permanent and it will have an impact.

He asked the chamber: “How on earth can you adequately cover such a large geographical area from one depot.”

Supporting the previous comments, Ulster Unionist Erne North Councillor Diana Armstrong said: “What sort of message does this send to road service staff in Enniskillen?

“When I see ‘temporary’ it brings back memories of other very important services that have been temporarily closed.

“By removing a local hub in the Fermanagh area, you are creating further travel time and that will impact on productivity and efficiencies.”

Diana Armstrong, UUP (Image: John McVitty)

Ms. Joanne McWilliams of Unite the Union and Mr. Alan Perry of GMB Trade Union said in a letter to the Council that  “these proposals pose considerable concerns to our members and for the Roads Service Operations & Maintenance function.

“The Roads Service claims that this results from difficulties in maintaining ‘a suitable industrial staff and/or managerial presence across the network’ and claims that the decision to ‘temporarily’ close the four hubs was taken neither as a cost-saving exercise or as an efficiency drive.”

In the letter, Ms. McWilliams and Mr. Perry raised their concerns for local staff, they said: “The impact of this decision on our members will be significant. Some affected workers live more than an hour away from the new service hubs. The travel involved, not to mention the large distances vehicles will have to travel to rural areas to conduct maintenance activities, will further undermine the public services and exacerbate the short-staffing crisis.”

They added: “Road service functions should be performed by properly paid and directly contracted road service workers. The huge waste on costly private sector contract work must be ended as it is undermining the Roads Service to the point that management are closing rural depots.”

The Council made the decision to write to the DFI Minister to highlight the concerns raised by the union and oppose the proposals from Road Service on the future of Silverhill Depot.