To ask the Minister for Regional Development what action he has taken following the flooding in East Belfast last year.

Firstly, it is important to highlight that the flooding which occurred in June 2007 and August 2008, in East Belfast, resulted from the abnormal rainfall which occurred within a short timeframe. The road gullies, storm and foul drains, and watercourses, were simply overwhelmed by the deluge of water, and the consequent flooding was not caused by the failure to maintain the operational effectiveness of the road gullies or other infrastructure.

Roads Service already has a robust regime in place for the maintenance of road gullies and aims to inspect, and clean where necessary, all gullies in urban areas twice each year. This policy ensures that a reasonable level of maintenance is carried out to the drainage system, whilst taking account of the Department’s finite funding and staff resource levels. There have been no underlying reasons identified within Roads Service’s scheduled maintenance operation, which would have contributed to the flooding incident last year.

Following the flooding on 12 June 2007, all reported locations within East Belfast were investigated by Roads Service and specific remedial works undertaken, such as the cleaning of drains, replacing gullies, raising kerbs and the reshaping of footways.

During the year, Roads Service has also been liaising with the other relevant Agencies, in order to examine flooding issues in East Belfast.

Rivers Agency is currently taking forward the Loop River Flood Alleviation Scheme, which will reduce the risk of flooding from watercourses.

NIW’s Drainage Area Study for the East Belfast region, is due to be completed by April 2009. The needs and options from this study will be assessed and any schemes arising from the study will be incorporated into NIW’s Capital Works Programme. As with all proposed works, the delivery of any schemes will be subject to available finances and competing priorities.

NIW has advised that it has been possible to accelerate parts of the East Belfast Drainage Area Study, including work required in the Cregagh Road and Castlereagh Road sub catchment. This work is scheduled for completion by December 2008. Some remedial work has also commenced which will improve the operation of the sewerage system in the Montgomery, Alanbrook and Merok areas of East Belfast.

In addition, NIW has upgraded the sewers in Burren Way and this will reduce the risk of future out-of-sewer flooding in this area.