8:00am Wednesday 30th December 2009
By Gazette newsdesk
DEMANDS are growing for a change to Cumbria County Council’s winter gritting policy after the Christmas freeze left many side roads and footpaths in a treacherous state and hundreds of elderly people trapped in their homes.
Retailers, shoppers and councillors joined other South Lakeland residents in a chorus of criticism of the authority’s road salting regime as they struggled to get around over the festive holiday.
The county council’s commitment to only grit routes according to a strict hierarchy meant most residential and rural roads and footpaths were not ‘routinely treated’.
A spokeman said only routes linking large economic centres, roads with ‘significant’ traffic volumes and links between larger villages and towns were guaranteed to be gritted.
And pedestrian areas in Kendal, Ulverston, Windermere and Ambleside town centres would only be treated when the forecast predicted long periods of icy weather. This work was now under way, said the spokesman.
The big freeze left thousands of people unable to make car journeys - but untreated paths meant walking was also a near impossibility for many, especially the elderly and infirm.
Ellen Dodds, 88, from Hallgarth Circle, said she had been unable to leave her home over the past nine days, except when she was taken by car to her son’s home on Christmas Day.
“I just daren’t go out, it’s so bad. On Christmas Day my granddaughter had to put a carpet down on the path so I could walk to the car.”
Mrs Dodds, a stroke victim who has to walk with the aid of a stick, added: “I can’t remember the snow being as bad as this in Hallgarth and I’ve lived here for 58 years.”
The Mayor of Kendal John Bateson said he planned to ask Kendal Town Council to lodge an official complaint about the gritting policy.
“What has happened is absolutely deplorable,” he said. “Gritting in Kendal has been grossly inadequate.”
Kendal Castle councillor Tom Clare said: “This whole thing needs some re-thinking.”
He said he had requested a meeting between the town council, South Lakeland District Council and highways bosses to discuss the road salting policy - particularly the possibility of employing SLDC workers such as refuse collectors to grit pavements and shopping areas, using grit supplied by the county council.
He said another issue was whether shopkeepers who cleared the paths outside their shops would be liable if someone subsequently slipped and fell.
“They need good, clear legal advice about this,” he said.
But fear of being sued did not stop several retailers on Branthwaite Brow from salting their shop frontages.
One of them, Sylvia Rawlinson who owns Branthwaite Wools, said: “I’ve been told it could be a legal problem if a person slipped and injured themselves on the cleared bit of path, but surely it’s much better to do that and put salt down than let them slip on the ice and snow.”
The council admitted this was a ‘grey area’ of the law but insisted no individual would be held responsible if they cleared snow or gritted outside homes and shops.
“Safety of footpaths and roads is the council’s legal responsibility,” said the authority’s spokesman. “No individual would be sued if they cleared snow from their frontages. Indeed, we would welcome them doing it.”
Tim Burrell, who runs the Market Place newsagents in Kendal, said making pedestrian areas safe should be the county council’s responsibility.
“This is part of the main shopping area and should be gritted by the council. It’s a disgrace. You pay your business rates and council tax and nothing is being done.”
Mr Burrell said the authority should at least supply a large grit bin for Market Place.
County councillor Stan Collins, of Staveley, said a highways helpline set up by the county council to deal with gritting inquiries had proved inadequate after it became swamped by callers.
“The council should have had more people mannning the line. They obviously haven’t been treating this as an emergency when it has been an emergency for some time.”
Meanwhile, volunteers from Kendal and Langdale and Ambleside mountain rescue teams have been busy helping ambulance crews, police and other agencies to reach inaccessible locations.
Eddie Harrison, team leader at Kendal, said: “We’ve been out every day for six days. One call involved helping to transport a dialysis patient from Dent to Westmorland General Hospital. In other cases we have been called on by social services to take carers to those clients who have been cut off by the snow.”
The county council spokesman said highways staff had been busy keeping first and second priority routes clear of snow and ice but had now begun to grit ‘third priority’ routes linking larger villages and towns in South Lakeland.
“This is a massive operation in such a sparsely populated county as Cumbria. We have only a certain amount of resources and we are doing what we can with them.”
True Grit - readers’ comments “I would like to know where all our dedicated councillors were after Christmas and before when all the roads and pavements of Grange were lethal with the build up of snow and ice and you risked life and limb each time you ventured outside the door . . . “ Jim Smith, Grange-over-Sands “It took the gritters five days before they even started to grit the road by where I live, which meant we couldn’t get out.” Richard Edmondson, Westwood Avenue, Kendal “Eight days of no snow plough, no gritting waqgons, no sand bins refilled! What, may I ask, do we and most South Lakeland residents pay our council tax for?” Elizabeth Wilkinson, Ambleside “I actually fell on the path along the riverside in town. I feel people should maybe clear the paths outside their houses, but (the county council) could at least clear the ones in town.” Terry Stratford, Kendal “Many people without cars have been prisoners in their own homes for well over a week. I realise financial constraints are relevant; even so the situation over recent days has been and continues to be intolerable for many.” John Crossley, Levens
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