IT'S summer we are looking forward to but in Pendle it is winter they are dreading already.

For the council has worked out that because of cuts in the county budget, 175 stretches of side road and country lanes will not be gritted when the weather may bring snow.

It's a false economy, officials complain, as snow is harder and more expensive to shift from roads that have not been salted in advance.

But it is more than that - it is risking life and limb all across Lancashire.

And no matter how tough the spending curbs, the County Council has no mandate to scrimp on road safety.

They should undo this crazy, dangerous cutback at once.

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