Questions raised over frequency of storm drain inspections
CONCERNS have been raised over the frequency of storm drain inspections carried out in Belfast.
People Before Profit representative Gerry Carroll voiced concern after an Assembly answer to a question he tabled for the Department for Infrastructure (DFI) revealed some storm drains are only inspected in 10-year cycles.
The issue of storm drains was in the news recently in connection with the Noah Donohoe case.
Noah (14), a pupil at St Malachy’s College, went missing in south Belfast on June 21 last year.
Following an extensive search operation, the teenager’s body was found in the storm drain in the north of the city, close to the M2 motorway, six days later.
A post-mortem found that he died as a result of drowning and a coroner’s hearing was later told there was no evidence that he was attacked or that anyone else was involved.
Earlier this month, police launched an investigation into how access was gained to the storm drain where he was found.
In its Assembly answer to Mr Carroll, Df I said there are 22,042 storm drains in the greater Belfast area, which are owned and maintained by a variety of public bodies. They said maintenance depends of a range of factors, such as the size and nature of the drain. DFI inspects and maintains culverted watercourses based on a five-year prioritised programme, “subject to practicalities”.
“The department’s maintenance regime for Category A culvert inlet grilles is generally carried out at weekly intervals and more often, as necessary, during periods of heavy rainfall,” a spokesperson added.
“Apart from storm drains within DBFO contracts which cover a number of the department’s main trunk roads and include a 10-year inspection cycle, other storm drains for which the department and its arm’s length bodies have maintenance responsibility are inspected when problems are identified and issues are addressed at this time subject to practicalities and the availability of resources.”
Design-build-finance-operate contracts are government contracts awarded to private sector firms to construct, finance and operate a capital project.
In response to Dfi’s answer, Mr Carroll told the Belfast Telegraph: “For a number of reasons I find the department’s response to these questions very concerning. For a start, we don’t know how many of the over 22,000 drains are maintained or inspected by DFI.
“I’m also deeply concerned about how regularly some of these drains are inspected. Some have a five-year inspection cycle, some 10 years and others probably much longer. There are big questions over public safety and the fact that there is not a regular inspection regime of storm drains poses many questions that the minister needs to answer.
“Chiefly of which is how many complaints around health and safety have the department faced in relation to these drains? When was the current scheme drafted?”
DFI said that health and safety is of “paramount importance” to the department and inspection regimes are dependent on a “range of complex factors.
“For designated watercourses, the principal purpose of the inspection is to ensure that they are running freely and able to convey flows of water as intended and that they are in a structurally adequate condition,” a spokesperson said.
“The department’s maintenance regime for Category A culvert inlet grilles is generally carried out at weekly intervals and more often, during periods of heavy rainfall. Any health and safety issue complaint the department receives, in any aspect of its infrastructure, is thoroughly investigated and remedial action taken as necessary.”