Roads into Douglas are crumbling while others around the island have been resurfaced to the standard of ’billiard tables’, an MLC has claimed.

Bill Henderson expressed his concern about the prioritisation and quality of roadworks around the Isle of Man.

He said: ’We have seen Jurby Road, outside to the north of Ramsey, done and other roads - say the Braaid, St Mark’s area - which are done to the standard of billiard table. Then we look at the main routes into the capital of the Isle of Man, which are crumbling.’

He warned Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer: ’If the main routes to the island’s capital are left any longer he will be having a second Douglas promenade, via Woodbourne Road, Bucks Road, Athol Street and Prospect Hill.’

Not all MHKs heeded a plea from Deputy President Juan Watterson not to put the spotlight on specific roads in their constituencies during Tuesday’s Tynwald sitting.

Martyn Perkins (Garff) chose an elaborate example when referring to a problem in Derwent Drive, Onchan.

’It is a Jules Verne pothole,’ he said. ’It is a journey to the centre of the earth.’

Mr Harmer admitted his own frustrations about prioritising road repairs.

’A lot of this is down to engineering,’ he said.

’We must be very conscious, as far as possible, that it is not about being political or about a bias in a particular way, it is about what engineering is the best way.’

Money was a problem, he admitted.

’There is over £80 million worth of road spend we could spend today on the network, that we need to upgrade.

’I am very grateful for the additional funds in the budget, but that only goes a very small way to the work that we need to do.’

Another issue had been the weather.

’There were 550 faults in January,’ he said. ’The ground was incredibly saturated. Normally we only have about 135.

’It is unfortunate that we have to wait until the roads fail before we do work and that is regrettable, but, as we invest more in roads, which we continue and want to do, then hopefully we can get into a proper regime of maintenance.’

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) had raised the issue, asking how the DoI sorts its roadworks priorities.

Mr Harmer said the department monitored the condition of all the island’s roads and pavements on a regular basis.

’A comprehensive survey is undertaken to determine the residual life of road foundations, ride quality and skid resistance, and also includes visual inspection of roads, kerbs and pavements,’ he added.

’The department uses the survey information, together with the defined hierarchy of roads, accident statistics, work planned by the statutory authorities, planned development and budgetary considerations to define priorities for the strategic maintenance projects on the road network.’

He agreed with an observation from David Cretney MLC that some repairs were ’very temporary’.

The Minister said a ’sensible consolidated repair’ was better than a quick fix, but there were budgetary constraints.