The review was undertaken by a team of senior Roads Service officials and outside experts, including Mr Mike Moore, director of environmental services for North Yorkshire County Council, in whose area snow frequently falls on the high moors.

I am grateful for the comments and advice of the Regional Development Committee, which met team members on 17 January 2001 at the start of the review and again more recently, when it heard the preliminary recommendations. Members of the Committee who have seen the detailed presentation of the review findings will agree that the review has been very thorough and has taken proper consideration of the issues raised by Members. It has been very worthwhile.

Most people believe that in exceptional winter conditions some disruption is to be expected, but there is always scope for improvement in our handling of those events. I am pleased that the Roads Service has drawn on the experience of last winter to develop better procedures.

One of the key points highlighted in the review is the need for a different approach to tackling heavy snow, by contrast to the routine salting of ice and frost. For example, during normal icy conditions, salt is sprayed at a rate of around 20 grams per square metre, and a gritter carries enough salt to cover the entire route. A gritter travels in one direction but spreads salt over both lanes, so the average treatment time for a route is approximately three hours.

By contrast, during heavy snow, salt has to be spread at twice the normal rate, and the gritters have to return to depot in mid-route to replenish. They also need to plough in both directions, and it can take more than a day to clear heavy snow from the standard network. The review makes several recommendations for addressing those difficult conditions.

The first recommendation is to increase snow-clearing capacity by adapting normal lorries to carry snowplough blades. The second is the phasing in of quick-mounting kits to cut the time needed to fit snow blades to vehicles. The third is to ensure that the workforce has regular training and practice in snow-clearing activities. The fourth is the prioritising of snow-clearing routes so that in extreme conditions the most important roads are tackled first. Finally, the review recommends enlisting the help of other agencies, such as district councils, to help clear busy town centre footpaths in periods of prolonged lying snow, and employing contractors and farmers to help clear snow from local roads using their own equipment.

The review also looked at procedures during normal frost conditions. As a public representative, I realise that many motorists greatly appreciate the salting service provided in times of ice and frost, so much so that there is a great demand to extend the normal salted road network. However, we must be practical, and we must carefully consider the resource implications. The salted road network comprises 28% of all roads and covers 80% of the traffic, because it targets busier roads. That amounts to over 4,200 miles of roadway, which is equivalent to twice the distance from Belfast to Moscow. This length of roadway is treated in just over three hours. It is a massive undertaking.

The review found that Northern Ireland has the greatest length of salted road network per head of population of any region in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. It is equal with Scotland, where winters are more severe, and is more than twice the average in England. Some of my officials said that we are "at the top of the league" in the UK. We should be trying - and I will be endeavouring - to win the European Champions' League, rather than simply being the UK league champions.

We also must remember that RUC statistics show that frost, ice and snow are a factor in only 2·5% of all road injury accidents. Less than 1% occur on roads outside the normal salted road network. Extending the salted road network is not the best way of achieving a targeted reduction in road casualties. To do that, we would be better spending resources on proper funding for road maintenance, which would improve the wet-weather skidding resistance of road surfaces throughout the year, not just in winter, or increasing the allocation for the accident remedial and traffic-calming programmes. The traffic-calming programmes have a proven track record of cutting accidents by 40%. I am sure that Members will recall my recent announcement in the House about the increase in traffic-calming programmes.

A modest increase in the salted road network is, however, justified. It currently includes roads carrying more than 1,500 vehicles per day, or 1,000 vehicles per day in hilly areas. I have accepted the review team's recommendation to increase the weighting for buses in service. For example, a 40-seater bus would be counted as 40 vehicles for the purpose of the criteria. I have also accepted the recommendation that each small settlement that has more than 100 dwellings within its area plan boundary should have a salted road link via the shortest route to the current salted road network. While precise routes still have to be worked out, we estimate that it will increase the salted network by up to 4%. Members may ask for more, but we already sit at the top of the UK league, and to do even more salting would inevitably mean doing less of something else. The number of people coming forward with suggestions for that has been remarkably small.

During conditions of prolonged ice or snow, Roads Service will also be taking a more flexible approach to requests for salting routes outside the salted network on a one-off basis. Other measures coming out of the review include earlier target times for completing morning salting runs to match the start of morning peaks on the main commuter routes, which are creeping forward year by year.

Finally, a new communications strategy is being developed, which will see an improved winter service leaflet being more widely distributed. In addition, Roads Service is developing systems so that real-time information on salting activities can be relayed electronically to the broadcast media. This will mean that motorists listening to breakfast radio can be kept up to date with road conditions and salting operations.

I have accepted the recommendations of the review team and asked Roads Service to implement them as far as possible for the coming winter. These measures will have a cost. In an average winter, that could be up to £0·5 million over and above the typical expenditure, which has been around £4·5 million per winter. In a severe winter, the cost will be much greater. However, my Department has not allowed cost restraints to impact on its response to emergency situations. That was demonstrated last winter, when we spread almost 75,000 tonnes of salt - 60% more than the average - and spent £1·2 million more than the normal budget.

I hope that the wide level of interest in winter service operations from all sections of the House will be remembered when consideration is given to my Department's bid for additional winter service resources in the appropriate estimating rounds.

I am grateful for the opportunity to make this statement to the House. I hope the House will agree that the measures I have announced today will help my Department to meet its main winter service objective, which is to help main road traffic move freely and safely in wintry conditions by spreading salt at the most effective times.

I welcome the Minister's statement and thank him for his discussions with the Regional Development Committee last week on this issue.

Clearly, we cannot grit all our roads, and there are substantial parts of the Province where minor roads fall outside the gritting schedule. Will the Minister consider encouraging local farmers to grit stretches of the road? Will he also consider placing strategic piles of grit in certain places on those roads that are not part of the gritted network, and encouraging local firms or farmers to help spread that grit? That would ease the load and the cost to the Department.

I thank the Deputy Chairperson for the positive nature of his comments. The review team considered the option of using farmers to help with normal salting operations. Consideration was given to it, and I will briefly outline why it was not pursued.

First, it would significantly increase the amount of salting and, therefore, the cost. Salting in that rather piecemeal way would be less efficient and more expensive than using a larger-capacity gritter. Secondly, there would be problems of command and control in contacting the farmers to tell them when to grit. There would also be the likelihood of discontinuous treatment, with roads being salted for a few miles but then the treatment being discontinued without any warning to motorists. That would create obvious problems.

There could be a significant response problem were we to employ persons who did not prove to be as reliable as others. If, through illness, or some other reason, they were not able to turn out, there would be an assumption that a road had been gritted when in fact it had not. That would be totally unacceptable to motorists.

The option of trying to get farmers to assist is an attractive one, but these reasons make it very difficult in the normal course of events to use them. As I said in my speech, the Roads Service at divisional level will be advertising, prior to this winter, to offer a standby contract to applicants who have suitable equipment and insurance. Farmers, as well as other contractors, will be able to apply for those positions.

This is an excellent statement, without any mention of the rocky road ahead. I share the Minister's view, expressed in his statement, that it has been a very thorough review. It has certainly gone into great detail. I have just a few points.

On the issue of the volume of traffic that determines the gritting criteria, I welcome the change from 1,500 vehicles per day to 1,000 vehicles per day, but I am not completely satisfied. My long-held view is that the figure should relate to a given number of vehicles in any hour of a 24-hour period. The term "morning peaks", as used in the Minister's statement, perhaps reflects my line of thinking.

Are you coming to your question, Mr Bradley?

Here it is, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is my understanding from last week's meeting with the Department's officials that the intention was to ensure that at least one route to and from rural schools would be gritted or cleared to prevent school closures during severe weather. Will the Minister confirm that my understanding is correct?

I thank the Member for his broadly positive response. I will just establish the criterion for him. It has been 1,500 vehicles per day. I understand, however, the rationale that says that there may be a specific number of vehicles using a route at a precise time and that for the remainder of the day it might be relatively underused. There are difficulties in trying to establish the number of vehicles at a precise moment in a day. The normal practice has been to establish a 24-hour day in which a particular number of vehicles use a road.

There are major problems in establishing a precise time at which a significant number of vehicles are using a road. If we were able to do that, it would show that significantly more roads had significantly more cars on them at, say, 9.00 am - school time. We would then be back to the resource implications of trying to cover more roads, with significantly greater costs. The criterion is 1,500 vehicles per day, but in hilly areas, mountainous regions or in other difficult circumstances, the criterion is 1,000 vehicles per day. The change that I have made gives greater weighting to the buses that are using lesser- used roads. Previously, a lesser weighting was given to buses using such roads. That should bring more roads into the salted network.

The issue of minor roads to schools was looked at in the review. I hope that, as a result of the recommendations, small settlements - those with more than 100 dwellings within an area plan boundary - will have a salted link road to the salted route network. Therefore, even if they are in an area that is not close to a salted route network, there will be a road that will connect them to it. In that sense there will be a salted route between small settlements, schools and the overall salted network.

I am pleased that the Minister has accepted the review's recommendations on this issue. People in west Tyrone will particularly welcome his comments about small settlements. It is vitally important that they be connected to the major salted routes in case of emergencies.

There is another issue that I am concerned about. There are many salt and grit boxes in rural areas. During times of normal frost - I am not talking about heavy snow - there is sometimes excessive use of grit in the mornings, the supply becomes depleted, and nobody seems to replenish it. In order to deal with, for instance, a five- or six-day spell of frost, there needs to be adequate replenishment of grit. Also, what is being done with regard to village and town footpaths? The greatest numbers of personal accidents happen during frosty periods.

My last point concerns the suitability of the equipment used to move the snow to the side of the road. It can cause more problems. Many of the snowploughs push the snow into farmers' lanes, and you can end up with lanes jammed and roads that nobody can access. Can we ensure that the equipment used pushes the snow right off the road and does not jam the lanes along the route?

The Member raised a number of issues, and I will try to deal with each of them. The availability of salt from depots was looked at during the review. One of the problems was that there seemed to be some representation to allow the public access to the depots to acquire salt to be used on roads outside the salted network or on farm lanes. That would have safety implications at a very busy time in the depots. With large gritters and loading shovels manoeuvring and reversing, there would be the possibility of accidents and claims arising from that. The safety of the public in the depots would have to be taken account of. The outcome of the review is that at the moment, salt boxes and grit piles are provided near to the points where they are most needed. One of the lessons learned from last winter is that those boxes and grit piles must be regularly replenished throughout frosty and snowy weather. The Department will endeavour to do that.

I know from Members' representations to me, and having made representations myself with regard to footways in Coleraine over the Christmas period, that there can be severe difficulties in pedestrian zones and on footways. However, it is at that time that Roads Service resources are stretched to the limit in trying to keep the main traffic routes open.

One of the first services to be stopped on occasions of severe weather conditions is the refuse collection carried out by district councils. In that case, district councils might be able to assist by spreading salt on busy town centre footways; Roads Service will gladly supply them with salt to do so. Some councils have expressed an interest in assisting in that way, and Roads Service will be in touch with all councils before next winter to see if local agreements can be reached to secure that assistance.

Mr Gibson's final point related to Roads Service's capacity to move snow without leaving it in another location where it can block access to and from lanes or minor roads. That point was addressed in the review. As I said earlier, staff will be trained in the fastest and most efficient way of loading the devices to clear the snow, and in the best and most efficient method of moving it from the roadway.

Ten more Members wish to ask questions, and only 32 minutes remain. I will therefore commend brevity in the length and number of questions asked.

I welcome the Minister's statement; I do not think it at all unseasonal. It is proper that a review of the winter services take place and that the recommendations be put in place now; they should be implemented prior to the winter season rather than when the first severe weather warning is announced. I particularly welcome the recommendation to have a communication strategy.

When priority roads have been cleared by snowploughs during prolonged snow cover, will the ploughs then be deployed to clear the lesser-used roads? The review also recommended that contractors and farmers should be employed and involved in clearing snow in local areas. Does the Minister anticipate that the necessary advertising, recruitment and contracts will take effect in time for the forthcoming winter?

I place great store on communication. Communication to motorists in the mornings when they begin their journeys is particularly important. It is important for them to know if a road has been cleared or is likely to be cleared in the immediate future. That is fundamental, and it is hoped that it will be of considerable assistance this winter.

As I said in my statement, the salted network comprises 28% of the road network in Northern Ireland. That 28% represents the most heavily travelled routes, and therefore some 80% of the traffic. Where there is snow and frost to such an extent that the main roads, which carry that 80% of traffic, are severely affected - and this happened last Christmas - Roads Service will concentrate on those roads and on that network. Once the salted road network has been cleared - either due to the efficiency of Roads Service or a slight improvement in conditions - it may be possible to try to clear minor roads that are not part of the network. Flexibility in the system will allow Roads Service to do this on a one-off basis, although there will be resource implications. The more often we do it, the more often we will exceed the amount of money allocated for winter service operations, which at the moment is just under £5 million, and the more often I will be coming back to the House to try to get additional moneys.

Trying to ensure that rural communities are not cut off is an issue that concentrated the minds of those on the review team. Undoubtedly, it will be foremost in the minds of all Roads Service officials this winter. I hope and expect that all communications and advertising will take place before winter comes so that the entire community will be aware of the position.

I thank the Minister for his statement and the attention that he and his Department are giving to the problems we have experienced during the recent winter.

The Minister will be aware of my South Antrim constituency. It can be described as a north/south axis stretching from urban Newtownabbey to the slopes of the Colin Mountain and Elliot's Hill in the north, and the boundary between south Antrim and Ballymena. It was in that area over the recent winter that the farming and rural community was, as we say in the country, "blocked in" for a period of almost four days. When I eventually got to the area I found that a subcontractor had been trying to open roads over a large rural area. He appeared to have only two small pieces of machinery. He was not -

Are you coming to your question?

Yes. The subcontractor was not even from my own county, never mind the Newtownabbey direction. Is the Minister giving attention to the need to be ready with more resources in a situation such as this? The resources available then were not able to cope with the situation.

I have seen the technology that is now in place, and I hope the Minister will accept that, last year, the one thing for which he was criticised more than any other was for being caught on the hop. If the Minister has the technology - and I was impressed with it - providing a link between the weather forecasters, himself, and his regional managers, why was he caught on the hop so often, when the cats and dogs on the street knew-

This is getting very -

-that there was a severe frost and that there was going to be snow. However, we went out on to our roads the next morning to find that apparently Roads Service had not been in attendance.

I take Mr Wilson's comments about his constituency and the subcontractor on board. I will not go through the guided tour he gave me.

I expect that the training that Roads Service staff will undertake will be completed by winter. They will be in touch with subcontractors such as the one Mr Wilson mentioned. They will be aware of the best way they can operate in the winter and of the best and most productive way they can ensure that designated roads are cleared. I hope and expect that the first-hand training given to Roads Service staff will be passed on to subcontractors.

The other issue is the extent of the snowfall. I am glad that Mr Jim Wilson used the word "apparently" in his question just now. I agree with him that a person rising in the morning and seeing a road covered in snow or frost would naturally assume that it had not been salted. It is not always an accurate assumption, because the road could be salted or gritted and then there could be a further snowfall. Given the extent of the salted road network - over 4,000 miles, which has to be covered in less than three hours - it is possible that roads could be salted and subsequently frosted over. It is difficult to salt roads in such a way that everyone can find the network clear, with no snow having fallen in the 30 minutes or 45 minutes since the roads were salted.

The review was carried out to make the best scheme in the UK a better scheme. As I said earlier - somewhat tongue in cheek - while we are the best in the UK, I want us to be the best in Europe. The Champions' League is what we want.

I welcome the Minister's statement. The Regional Development Committee made a meaningful contribution to that review.

Did Roads Service consider salting at least one route to each school, particularly those in rural areas where there is great concern each winter about public safety? People in rural areas would appreciate that.

I thought that I had paid tribute to the Committee already. I thank the Committee for its help and assistance in considering the outcome of the review.

The review considered rural schools. The difficulty is that there is usually more than one access road to each school. The problem - without going into specific detail - is that if a particular route between the salted road network and a small rural school were to be salted, then people living on the wrong side of the salted minor road would have to make additional journeys. Such people might have to go several miles in order to get to the salted minor road, thereby increasing the possibility of motorists believing that they were encountering more risk.

Therefore, while the review looked at the possibility of salting a minor road between the salted road network and a rural school, it was simply not possible to do it in a way that would minimise journey time. If it were possible to achieve this, we would look at the situation again. If Members know of specific roads that could be salted and that would not disadvantage a number of parents leaving children to school, then I will look at such a situation.

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. I would like to talk about school bus routes in my own area of Newry and Mourne, and in particular in the areas around Mayobridge, Ballyholland and Rathfriland.

Last winter the minor roads in these hilly areas, which are served by four or five bus routes, were taken off the gritting schedule. Although I welcome the Minister's statement and what he is trying to do, he does not go far enough. These minor roads should be prioritised before death or injury occurs on school bus routes.

I think the Member intended to ask a question. Perhaps the Minister will answer it.

I have outlined the resource implications before, and I tried to do so again today. For example, if I were to increase the percentage of traffic covered by the salted network from the existing 80% to 90%, it would costs several million pounds. If I were to try to cover 100%, which most would accept as being virtually impossible, it would cost many millions of pounds. It is therefore a question of devising a mechanism to treat the maximum mileage of road and accommodate the maximum number of vehicles on the salted network within the resources available to me.

I understand the concerns about rural areas, and it is about these areas that Members speak most consistently, but in practical terms they have the lowest density of traffic. Today I announced a change in the weighting to be applied to buses - for example, school buses. This will increase the number of minor rural roads included on the salted network. As I said, for the purposes of the criteria, a 40-seater bus is counted as 40 vehicles. That ought to mean that a greater number of small rural roads on which school buses take children to rural schools will become part of the salted route network. However, it would cost several million pounds to cover every eventuality for every rural school on every rural route.

In the past I have made bids for additional funding for winter maintenance, but unfortunately they have been unsuccessful. However, I will continue to bid for an increase in the amount of resources deployed for winter service.

I welcome the Minister's statement, but I query the administrative outwork and the practical terms of his statement. He refers to enlisting the help of other agencies, such as district councils. Does he intend to pay district councils for their assistance, so that they can recoup some of their costs? As a member of a local authority, I must declare an interest in this matter.

Will the Minister consider, even at this late stage, compiling a register of willing contractors, including local farmers, who could be organised to salt the roads network, particularly minor roads in constituencies such as Newry and Armagh, which need obvious and urgent attention during winter conditions?

The question of councils will be dealt with in the near future, in the light of the correspondence that will flow from the Roads Service to each of the 26 district councils. I do not want to go into specifics, but most interested observers will see the practical difficulties encountered by councils when there is substantial snowfall. In times of heavy snowfall, the refuse collection service is usually reduced considerably or stopped.

It would be a positive and productive use of council staff's time if it were possible, between Roads Service and local councils, to devise a system to deploy that labour to clear footways and pedestrian areas. Roads Service and councils will discuss that in some detail before any agreement is reached, but the communication between them will be under way within a few months - well in advance of the winter.

Mr Kennedy referred to how farmers can be included. I said earlier that there will be a standby contract with applicants with suitable equipment and insurance. That will almost exclusively be in rural areas, where they are required because the roads are outside the salted route network. Farmers and other contractors will be entitled to apply, and I encourage them to do so. When they do, and the successful applicants are ready to begin, they must be suitably trained in the use of the machinery in order to get the maximum efficiency from the post.

There does not appear to be any reference to cross-border co-operation. I spent several hours marooned on the Newry-Killeen border crossing on December 28. Can the Minister assure the House that main crossing points will receive priority in a co-ordinated way so that there is no repeat of last winter's failures, when many people, including the elderly and young children, were left stranded for hours?

I assume from the Member's comments that the road that he mentioned is on the salted route network. It is obvious that, in extreme conditions, there can be difficulties in keeping even the salted route network open. However, any main road on the salted route network - whether it is cross-border or not - is a priority route, and resources are deployed to keep it clear. The principle that I have announced will also apply on other roads - again, cross-border or not - outside the salted route network. Where the salted route network is clear and resources allow Roads Service to try to clear other roads on a one-off basis, resources will be deployed to keep those roads clear.

I intend that the roads that carry 80% of traffic, whether internal to Northern Ireland or cross-border, will be kept clear. The review is designed to achieve that objective. I hope, and confidently expect, that that will be the case.

The review has pinpointed a number of problems. I want to ask the Minister about information that is available to the public. On many occasions when there has been a severe winter or overnight snow, there has been a lack of information to the public, and especially motorists, about which roads are blocked and the timetable for clearing them. I want the Minister to take the point about how the public is informed of road conditions when there is a heavy snowfall.

As I said in response to a previous question, I have taken a particular interest in this issue. Of all the aspects of the review, this can go the furthest in assisting members of the public. The possession of information about whether roads are blocked or clear will assist them in making decisions about their journeys. That is why I want to see - and will expect to see - the communications strategy in place in advance of the winter service leaflet being more widely distributed. We now have a whole network in Northern Ireland of major broadcasting stations and minor commercial radio stations. Many people tune in to those on car radios, or at home before leaving. If we can get real-time information to motorists or potential motorists, that will greatly assist them in their journeys.

By way of a caveat, I must add that the weather enters the equation. For example, even if at 6.45 am a local radio station - wherever it might be in Northern Ireland - indicates that a particular road is clear, there may well be heavy snow at 6.55 am. That would, of course, mean that the information that people received 10 minutes previously was obsolete.

There is a difficulty. There is no precise scientific answer to this question. However, in general terms, the communications resource, if used properly, can go a substantial way to being of significant assistance to all motorists, particularly in very severe wintry conditions.

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. I have to welcome any review which might improve the situation regarding roads in the winter. Looking at the situation last year - or in any year - quite often in rural areas, heavy snow means that everything stops. It can even happen in cities, as was the case on one particular day last year.

It is welcome that the figure of 1,500 vehicles per day has been reduced to 1,000. Is the latter figure based on urban areas rather than rural areas? If so, areas such as Fermanagh or Tyrone would have only a very small length of minor roads gritted or salted. That is a difficulty. We have some link roads between main roads that are used a lot by heavy lorries, although perhaps not by school buses. There are difficulties with the surfaces of particular roads -

Are you coming to a question?

My question is being asked in context. Is there a possibility that roads within striking distance of the criterion of 1,000 vehicles could be included at some point? They are particularly difficult at a local level.

Most of the roads outside the salted network are in rural areas, because rural areas are, for the most part, less populated than urban areas. Those roads falling outside the salted route network are therefore almost exclusively rural roads. The criterion of 1,000 vehicles per day refers to areas of mountainous or hilly terrain. I should elaborate on the matter of buses, particularly in relation to rural schools. Where a number of buses use lightly travelled routes, each 40-seater bus counts as 40 vehicles towards meeting the criterion. Each year, Roads Service staff review the roads network to identify roads that may be coming close to entry into the salted network.

The problem is that if Roads Service were to make roads that carry 900 or 950 vehicles per day a point of reference, next year MLAs and councillors would say that there are roads that carry 800 or 850 vehicles per day, a figure that almost meets the 900-vehicle benchmark. That would bring us back to the resource implications. Therefore there are difficulties and problems, but there is also flexibility.

For a further year, sympathetic consideration will be given to winter gritting of those roads that currently come close to the 1,000-vehicle-per-day criterion in hilly areas. In the following year, the number of vehicles on those roads may increase slightly, with the total coming close to or exceeding the 1,000-vehicle-per-day criterion. If that happened, the road would be placed on the salted route network.

I listened carefully to the Minister's statement, which deals with an issue that needed to be addressed given last winter's road conditions. However, can the Minister tell me whether all bus routes to rural schools will be gritted?

I will try to be as clear as I can and clearer, obviously, than I have been. Every rural road that meets the criteria will be salted. Rural and urban roads are on the salted route network if they meet the criteria. It follows that if they are not on the salted route network, they do not meet the criteria. The outcome of today's statement will be to increase the number of roads on the salted road network. I admit that the increase will be marginal, but given the resources at my disposal it is difficult to see how it could be otherwise.

The Member is concerned about rural schools. In the case of small rural roads in areas that do not meet the criteria, the Department is endeavouring to look at small settlements in those rural areas with more than 100 dwellings within the area plan boundary and to provide them with a salted road link via the shortest route to the current salted network. That will not automatically mean that every rural school has a salted road leading to it. However, rural roads that meet the criteria will be salted.

I welcome the Minister's statement and in particular the recommendations to use the help of local farmers and local district councils to keep footpaths clear. As the Minister is aware, the terrain in the council area of Derry is steep and difficult to negotiate. I listened to the responses that the Minister gave to Mr Kennedy and to Mr Gibson. Can he confirm that the schemes will be well advertised, with contracts drawn up in advance so that, in the event of a heavy snowfall or a severe frost, the risk to the public will be minimised?

I suppose that the short answer is yes. The problem is that however well the scheme is advertised, people will miss it. Some months should elapse between today and the start of the winter schedule. At that time, we will try to maximise local media coverage through radio stations, television and newspapers so that as many people as possible are aware of the schedule, what it means and what roads it covers in their area.

What management and control systems exist in the Department for Regional Development to ensure that the distribution of ploughs and gritters reflects the variable distribution of snow, because snow does not, of course, fall evenly across the Province?

The Member has raised a very important and interesting point. Although I will probably get in trouble with my staff for saying this, I encourage the hon Member - and other Members - to go to the Roads Service meteorological survey office, where they will, I hope, be given a résumé that shows exactly how each of the district council areas is covered and how the reports are sent in on a frequent basis throughout the day. Those reports mean that at any given time, engineers across Northern Ireland are aware of the temperatures throughout Northern Ireland, the depth of any snow and the potential for more snow and frost. During the very bad weather last winter, I went to the office to get a report. I heavily recommend that Members do that - or rather I "actively" recommend it; otherwise Members might think that I am talking about snowfall. They will see the extent to which Roads Service goes to try to ensure that account is taken of the differentials that Dr Birnie mentioned.

Given the amount of salt being used and the size of the road network being covered, is there any evidence of long-term effects on the roads? If there is, how much money will be coming out of the Minister's budget to repair those roads?

The Member is talking about the unfortunate corollary of the steps that I have proposed. Taking a dispassionate view, the money that is required to salt the roads for two years would build a bypass. Using salt on the salted route network does have an effect on the roads, and that has an impact on the maintenance budget throughout Northern Ireland. However, given the pressures that we face and the demands from the community regarding the extent of the salted route network, it is a very finely balanced judgement.

In my statement I said that 75,000 tonnes of salt were spread last winter. That does have an effect on the structure of the roads, but we are also under pressure to ensure that the roads are made as safe as possible to travel on during extreme weather conditions. The downside, as Mr Davis says, is that that has a cost effect that, unfortunately, is reflected in my maintenance budget.

Most of the questions today have, rightly, concerned rural roads. Grit boxes are provided at the bases of steep hills in towns so that people can grit them themselves. However, over the past few years I have received several complaints from people who live near hills which are not deemed steep enough for a grit box to be provided but which, when the frost comes in the winter, do present serious problems for traffic. Does the Minister intend to review the criteria that govern the provision of grit boxes in towns?

The issue of salt boxes and grit piles causes difficulties, particularly during the periodic visits by Roads Service officials to local councils. Invariably, during the winter visit, local councils make representations such as the one that Mr Hamilton has just made.

It is difficult to provide a salt box or grit pile at every incline, regardless of its steepness or the number of dwellings on it. Roads Service officials will deal sympathetically with requests from people who live on an incline, from their local representatives - MPs, MLAs or councillors - or from the corporate body of the council.

I am aware, as are others, of instances in which a council has asked Roads Service officials to consider more closely the provision of salt boxes. I expect Roads Service officials to treat the matter in a sympathetic manner. I would like details of requests for salt boxes that have not been met, and I will ask my Roads Service officials to explain the decisions.

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