Road-drainage figures for Fermanagh and Omagh raise an unanswered 45% question
The Department lists 54,978 gullies and says 34,894 were cleaned, then reports 45%. The published numbers do not yield that percentage without another definition.
A Northern Ireland roads report has published three different figures for gully cleaning in Fermanagh and Omagh — and left readers without a clear explanation of how they fit together. At a time when road flooding and blocked drains can disrupt journeys, the missing definition matters as much as the headline percentage.
The Department for Infrastructure's 2026 maintenance return states that the council area contains 54,978 road gullies. It then says '34,894 (15,661) were cleaned in 2025/26 (45%)'. No explanation is provided alongside the sentence for the number in brackets or the calculation behind 45%.
The most straightforward calculation gives a different result. If 34,894 of 54,978 gullies were cleaned, that represents 63.5%, not 45%. The smaller figure of 15,661 is approximately 44.9% of 34,894. It is also only 28.5% of the stated total stock of 54,978. Those are three very different interpretations of the same line.
The public document does not allow a reader to establish which number represents distinct gullies visited, which is a subcategory, or whether the percentage refers to an entirely different operational measure. The figures need clarification; there is not enough evidence to label the entire report an error.
Why one percentage matters to drivers
Road gullies are the inlets that carry surface water from the carriageway into drainage systems. Their condition is not something a motorist can usually inspect from a moving car, yet it becomes conspicuous when rainwater accumulates along a kerb, at a junction or on a road with a poor camber.
Cleaning programmes matter because silt, debris and leaves can reduce a gully's ability to collect water. They are not the only factor in surface flooding: blocked outfalls, insufficient drainage capacity and extreme rainfall can also overwhelm a road even where a gully has been cleaned.
That is why an annual maintenance return should be clear about what it is counting. A percentage based on distinct gullies cleaned is different from the number of visits by crews, the number of gullies targeted for cleaning or the number of gullies belonging to selected road classes.
The Fermanagh and Omagh report adds a parenthetical note that A-class, B-class and urban gullies receive a complete clean. It does not explain whether this note is connected to the bracketed number 15,661 or to the stated 45%.
The distinction could be straightforward once the Department supplies the underlying definitions. Until then, readers cannot safely compare the figure with other districts on a like-for-like basis.
A clearer comparison is available next door
Mid Ulster's report uses more transparent figures. It lists 61,032 gullies and states that 45,889 were cleaned in 2025/26, representing 75%.
The arithmetic supports the published percentage: 45,889 divided by 61,032 is approximately 75.2%. A reader can see what has been measured, even if questions remain about how often individual drains require servicing or whether a drain's condition is checked after cleaning.
It is tempting to set Mid Ulster's 75% against Fermanagh and Omagh's 45% and declare one district far behind. That comparison is not justified while the Fermanagh and Omagh denominator and bracketed quantity are unexplained.
If its intended calculation is 34,894 out of 54,978, the apparent difference would narrow materially. If 15,661 refers to a specified subset or a separate type of clean, a different interpretation could apply. PureCar has not obtained the detailed underlying records needed to determine which is correct.
What else the annual returns show
The same documents demonstrate that drainage is only one part of a substantial annual road-maintenance programme.
Mid Ulster recorded 204 completed drainage sites at a total cost of £751,579 in 2025/26, with work listed at locations including the Moy Road, Battery Road, Hillhead Road and a range of local roads. Its 2026/27 plans refer to a further 204 drainage sites, with an estimated cost of £608,000.
The Fermanagh and Omagh report separately lists drainage works across roads around Omagh, Enniskillen and rural communities. Those capital or structural drainage projects are not the same measure as routine gully cleaning.
A newly installed drain, an upgraded outlet and a maintenance visit to an existing gully are distinct activities. Their numbers cannot simply be combined to produce a single total of drains maintained.
That separation matters because a council area could report substantial expenditure on major drainage improvement while still having a limited routine cleaning programme. The figures should be examined on their own terms.
The questions that should be answered
The Department can settle the issue by explaining three things: what 34,894 denotes, what the parenthesised 15,661 denotes, and which numerator and denominator produced the displayed 45%.
A useful response would also say whether the maintenance programme counts each gully once or records repeat visits, whether the figures cover all classes of road, and whether seasonal scheduling changes the annual target.
None of these questions implies wrongdoing. The point is that the published wording is too ambiguous for motorists, councillors and researchers to assess the extent of routine drainage coverage confidently.
Flooding on a road has many possible causes; the report alone cannot establish whether a particular incident was caused by a gully that was not cleaned. It can, however, establish whether the Department's public performance figures are understandable and consistent.
Fermanagh and Omagh's 2026 return presently leaves that basic question unresolved. A clear explanation would turn three competing interpretations into one useful public measure — exactly what an annual maintenance report ought to provide.
