East Lancashire snow: Monday gritting update (From Lancashire Telegraph)

East Lancashire snow: Monday gritting update

10:30am Monday 11th January 2010 in News By Tom Moseley, Reporter

The Lancashire County Council roads boss has admitted they could run out of grit if the area is hit by snow again.

Coun Keith Young, cabinet member for roads, said the authority only had enough grit for if the weather remained clear.

He said: "If we get another blizzard then, like other authorities, we are in trouble."

Blackburn with Darwen's roads chief, Coun Alan Cottam, said the borough had 'more grit than we expected' after a delivery last week.

He said bus routes would continue to get priority treatment.

Blackburn with Darwen bosses are mixing their rock salt with grit and table salt in an attempt to make it last longer.

The concoction, which has been backed by road safety experts, will eventually be used to re-stock empty grit bins in residential areas.

But highways chiefs admit it will leave a residue and will not be as effective as pure rock salt, which has been restricted by Winsford salt mine in Cheshire – besieged by orders from councils across the country.

Regeneration director Peter Hunt said he had no concerns about availability of the mixture, which was more expensive than rock salt.

He added: “We are experimenting with this, and it goes through the gritting machines well enough.

“There’s no doubt about it, rock salt is the best. But there is no shortage of white salt. It’s not ideal, but it’s the next best thing.”

Mr Hunt said the council would look to put the substance in grit bins across the borough once the road network had been treated.

Gritting lorries were out yesterday and overnight, with priority given to hospital routes, but bosses said they hoped to cover all their priority highways network, which represents about a third of the borough’s roads.

Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA, said: “It seems to be a sensible way around the problem.”

Pendle Labour MP Gordon Prentice said: “Before Christmas Coun Young was saying how well prepared the county was for the winter. Yet scarcely two weeks later we are told salt supplies are scarce and only main roads can be kept open. As a result my office has had an increasing number of emails and calls about secondary roads.”

Mr Prentice called for County Hall to be stripped of its gritting duties in Pendle.

Tory council leader Geoff Driver hit back, challenging the MP to a public debate on the issue. He said the policy had been set up by the previous Labour administration, and added: “If we wanted to do all the roads and footpaths it would triple the costs, and for most of the year the infrastructure would be standing idle.

"Do the people of Lancashire want to spend £7.5million for that?

"Council tax would have to be put up or I would ask the MP which services he would cut.”

Andrew Howard, the AA’s head of road safety, said a national debate should be held on whether councils should spend more money preparing for snow and ice on the roads.

Meanwhile a campaign has been launched to improve gritting services throughout Rossendale.

Residents in the borough have turned to the social networking site Facebook to get the attention of Lancashire County Council, which they said had let the people of Rossendale down.

Andrew Lord, 36, of Hoghton Avenue in Bacup, created the Facebook site.

The TNT lorry driver and father-of-two, said: “This group has been set up in protest against Lancashire county council who refuse to grit the side roads in Bacup and Weir in particular, Bacup being the highest town in East Lancashire at 875 feet above sea level.

“I've lived in Bacup all my life and we have always had to deal with more snow than the rest of the valley and the vast majority of Lancashire.”

Useful links

Blackburn with Darwen Council gritting update Lancashire County Council gritting update

Watch our video of people struggling in the snow in Blackburn.

What's the gritting like in your area? Add your comments below.