Isle of Man roads 'unacceptable'

The level of road maintenance in the Isle of Man has been "unacceptable" over the past year, according to the infrastructure minister.

Phil Gawne apologised after admitting that a lack of funding had had a negative effect on repair schemes.

From November 2010 to May 2011 about 500 reports of road damage were reported to the government every month.

Mr Gawne said: "Because of the severe weather we have actually got ourselves in a bit of a mess this year."

He added: "Like all government departments we are trying to save money and we actually reduced the overall maintenance budget by about 20% to 25% back in 2010.

"That worked well last year but this year there has been more to deal with, we have got to apologise because the standard of road maintenance this year has not been acceptable. I have made it clear that this cannot happen again next year".