Council criticised for failing to provide grit for slippery rural roads
A business owner near Thirsk says they didn’t have the grit they needed to deal with the weekend snow.
Vicky Smart, from Brian Smart Racing Stables, in the small village of Hambleton off the A170 near Sutton Bank, says conditions have been terrible and very dangerous too.
She had to do her best in order to give access to the fire service who arrived to top up their water supply for the horses after the taps ran dry.
“The lane leading down to from the A 170 to the stables is actually a council owned road up to our end of our driveway. It’s in a terrible condition. It’s very wet, it floods and then it freezes.
“On Sunday morning I obviously went to grit it with my own supply because the council had not left any for us.
“Normally they leave out piles of it, but that hasn’t happened this time.”
Reduced supply
In September YorkMix reported that North Yorkshire was set to reduce its precautionary winter salt spreading to minimum levels set out in national guidelines.
An officers’ report to leading members of North Yorkshire County Council said lowering the minimum salting spread rate to 8g per square metre could save the authority a further £75,000 during a “normal season”.
The council faced calls to review its gritting policies amid claims that a lack of action has seen parts of the county suffer gridlock in recent years.
The move followed the authority cutting the amount of salt it spread on the county’s 6,000 miles of roads last winter with the ambition of saving £195,000 of taxpayers money a year.
Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, at North Yorkshire County Council was asked on YorkMix Radio what was happening.
“Well, first of all our gritting teams teams have been working through the night all the time to get grit on the priority roads to keep North Yorkshire moving.
“The grit heaps and grit bins are at the side of roads, in locations where it has been assessed that they are necessary.
“And every grit bin and every grit heap was full.
“When when our winter programme started in October, we kept them replenished. Of course after this weekend, there may be some which have been used up because members of the public have needed it and we haven’t got back to them to fill them up again yet.
“But I can assure that resident that that is exactly what the North Yorkshire highways team is doing right now.”
Cllr MacKenzie said if people needed a fill up and one hadn’t arrived they should report it on the council website.