Friday 25 January 2002
Written Answers to Questions (Continued)

Mr Beggs asked the Minister for Regional Development to detail the number of senior citizens who have been issued with free travel passes by (a) constituency; (b) district council area; and (c) post code area.

(AQW 1160/01)

The Minister for Regional Development (Mr P Robinson): Translink has advised that the information held about the current addresses of senior citizen concession pass holders is incomplete. Translink hold only the addresses of those 70,000 or so senior citizens to whom concession passes have been issued over the last five years. These are the addresses occupied at the time of issue of the passes and about 8,000 of them do not contain postcodes. Translink has provided the following information for the postcoded addresses held in its database.

Information on the number of passes issued by constituency and district council area is not available. However, Translink is taking steps to create a revised database linked to its new ticketing system. This will generate better information about the take up of concession passes and it should be possible to extract more information automatically on an area basis.

Mr Shannon asked the Minister for Regional Development to detail the number of gritting bins issued in each local District Council area in each of the last three years.

(AQW 1294/01)

Mr P Robinson: The approximate numbers of salt bins provided by my Department’s Roads Service in each district council area during the last three years are detailed in the attached appendix. This sets out the cumulative total over the last three years.

In urban areas (including housing estates), salt bins may be provided on roads which are adopted by Roads Service but are not included in the salting schedule. To qualify for consideration for the provision of a salt bin, the gradient of a road should be equal to, or greater than, 5% (ie, 1 in 20) and a reasonable alternative route on the salting schedule should not be available. Other criteria taken into account are the road geometry, residential and commercial usage and community welfare reasons.

Mr Shannon asked the Minister for Regional Development to detail the criteria for the provision of gritting bins for housing estates.

(AQW 1295/01)

Mr P Robinson: The approximate numbers of salt bins provided by my Department’s Roads Service in each district council area during the last three years are detailed in the attached appendix. This sets out the cumulative total over the last three years.

In urban areas (including housing estates), salt bins may be provided on roads which are adopted by Roads Service but are not included in the salting schedule. To qualify for consideration for the provision of a salt bin, the gradient of a road should be equal to, or greater than, 5% (ie, 1 in 20) and a reasonable alternative route on the salting schedule should not be available. Other criteria taken into account are the road geometry, residential and commercial usage and community welfare reasons.

Mr Bradley asked the Minister for Regional Development what action he will take to improve the water supply at Cherry Hill, Rostrevor.

(AQW 1316/01)

Mr P Robinson: Cherry Hill is a private development which is situated in an elevated location. Consequently, bursts in the watermains in the overall supply area can result in the loss of water supply to the development. This has occurred on two occasions over the past few years.

The most recent incident involved periodic interruptions between 2 to 4 January 2002 and was caused by bursts in the watermains following the adverse weather conditions over the Christmas/new year period. Water Service regrets the inconvenience that this caused to the residents of Cherry Hill. Water Service staff worked continuously over this period to locate and repair bursts and provide information and advice to customers.

Over the past three years Water Service has spent £2.5 million upgrading the water distribution system which serves the Rostrevor/Warrenpoint area. This has considerably enhanced the security of the water supply to the Cherry Hill development. Assessments are being carried out to identify if other watermains require replacement.

Water Service also proposes to build two new service reservoirs in the area at a cost of some £500,000. The service reservoir proposed for Leitrim, Rostrevor should further enhance the security of the water supply to the Cherry Hill development. Construction is programmed to commence in June of this year and will take 11 months to complete.

Mr Kennedy asked the Minister for Regional Development to detail the hours worked by both full- time staff and private contractors in respect of road gritting duties in both the Newry sectional office and the Armagh sectional office during the Christmas 2001/new year period.

(AQW 1326/01)

Mr P Robinson: My Department’s Roads Service has advised me that, between 25 December 2001 and 2 January 2002, the total number of hours spent on road gritting duties by its Newry and Mourne and Armagh section offices was 604 hours and 830 hours respectively. Of these, 241 hours and 67 hours were worked by private contractors in the Newry and Mourne and Armagh areas respectively.

Mr Weir asked the Minister for Regional Development to detail the cost of attacks on (i) Citybus vehicles (ii) Ulsterbus vehicles and (iii) Northern Ireland Railways trains in the last twelve months.

(AQW 1386/01)

Mr P Robinson: Translink has advised that during the last 12 months the cost of damage caused by attacks to Citybus and Ulsterbus vehicles and NIR trains were £340,000, £370,000, and £162,000 respectively, giving an overall total of £872,000. These costs are only the direct cost of repairs, ie labour and materials. They do not include the loss of fare revenue that arises when vehicles have to be taken out of service without warning, the cost of personal injury claims from staff and the public which may be settled later and other consequential losses which are difficult to quantify.

I deplore and condemn without reservation these wanton acts of vandalism on public transport vehicles. The money that Translink has used to repair the vehicles could obviously have been much better utilised in improving services. Furthermore, these acts of vandalism do nothing to encourage the general public to utilise public transport. I will therefore continue to support Translink in its ongoing efforts to try and eradicate such problems.

Mr Neeson asked the Minister for Regional Development when contracts are expected to be signed for the new rolling stock on the Larne railway line.

(AQW 1434/01)

Mr P Robinson: Translink has advised that it hopes to be in a position to award supplier contracts for new rolling stock towards the end of February, subject to the satisfactory completion of final tender negotiations.

Mr Hilditch asked the Minister for Social Development to detail, by constituency, the number of home adaptations, recommended by an occupational therapist, that have been completed in each of the last three years.

(AQW 1364/01)

The Minister for Social Development (Mr Dodds): The information is not held in the form requested. However at 31 March 2001 the numbers by Housing Executive area are as follows.

These figures include both completions for disabled facilities grants and for disabled adaptations grants, which are available under minor works assistance.

These figures include substantial numbers of changes of heating for people with disabilities which from March 2001 have been carried out without the involvement of an occupational therapist. The numbers of adaptations carried out on occupational therapist’s recommendations will therefore fall from 2001-02 year onwards.

The Housing Executive also carries out a significant number of minor works for people with disabilities. These include handrails, ramps, lever taps, lowering of cupboards etc. Some of these are carried out on the recommendation of an occupational therapist while others are carried out directly by the Housing Executive. The Housing Executive does not gather statistics on the numbers where an occupational therapist was involved. These figures include minor works carried out with or without an occupational therapist’s recommendation. As the result of a review, the number of types of minor works that the Housing Executive can carry out without an occupational therapist’s recommendation has been increased.

Mr M Robinson asked the Minister for Social Development to detail (a) the number of new homes for social renting that were constructed over the last five years; and (b) the number expected to be constructed over the next five years.

(AQW 1368/01)

Mr Dodds: The number of new units started and planned over the last five years is as follows:

The current starts target for the current and each of the following four years is 11,200 units per annum.

Mr M Robinson asked the Minister for Social Development to detail the number of Housing Executive houses which have central heating systems more than 15 years old.

(AQW 1369/01)

Mr Dodds: Some 39,500 dwellings have glass fronted solid fuel fires and of these properties, 4,400 have appliances over 15 years old. In addition the Housing Executive has 24,000 properties with Economy 7 and 27,500 properties with open fire central heating. While these have a longer life than roomheaters, the Housing Executive’s heating strategy proposes their replacement over the next 13 years.

Mr Gibson asked the Minister for Social Development to outline any recent discussions with other Government Departments in relation to reducing pensioner poverty in Northern Ireland.

(AQW 1372/01)

Mr Dodds: Meetings with other Departments take place periodically to discuss a range of issues including those matters that affect pensioners in Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom Government has developed a range of policies which are designed to combat pensioner poverty. Many pensioners in Northern Ireland will benefit from the various measures that will be introduced. Local initiatives to tackle pensioner poverty are also considered.

Mr Weir asked the Minister for Social Development to detail the number of unemployed claimants by electoral ward in North Down.

(AQW 1384/01)

Mr Dodds: The number of persons claiming Jobseeker's Allowance by electoral ward in the North Down constituency area are detailed in the table below.

The figures provided are the most recent available at 8 November 2001.

Mr Shannon asked the Minister for Social Development to include other financial commitments such as furniture and car payments in the Housing Executive assessment of the financial position of persons who are having their house repossessed by a bank or building society.

(AQW 1399/01)

Mr Dodds: Financial information is taken into account in determining whether

i. an applicant fulfils the statutory homelessness criteria, one of which is he or she is unintentionally homeless; and

ii. extra points can be awarded if not accepted as homeless.

In deciding intentionality, under the homelessness legislation, the Housing Executive takes account of the overall financial circumstances of the applicant, including non-housing costs such as those mentioned. The majority of applicants will, therefore, have their overall financial situation taken into account, including reasonable levels of indebtedness.

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