Winter is here and whilst Durham County Council have spent millions on salt and new vehicles, their strategy is flawed on one single issue – getting people and vehicles out of their own iced-up streets.
Their solution to this is providing salt bins for a few residents to spread about. What is the point of having clear main roads if cars cannot get out of their own street?
Millions in production was lost to industry last year because workers were stuck at home unable to drive their cars through packed snow and ice on roads where their cars are parked.
Some clever thinking people parked their cars on the nearby main road to beat this problem, but if everyone did this the gritters could not do their job.
The task of keeping roads clear in Aycliffe should be delegated to our Town Council who could prioritise snow clearing and path clearance to make life easier for residents.
Taking out the cost of bringing gritters and snow ploughs into our town, from far away depots, would compensate for what it costs to have this work completed locally. We would also receive a quicker and effective response time.
The same applies to grass cutting when this year we discovered contractors carrying out work needlessly. Because they were contracted to do the job, heavy machines scrambled over badly flooded grassed areas causing deep wheel ruts whether it was the right conditions or not to cut!
The County Council admit to having just over 2000 salt bins for the whole County. Residents can use the Coucil’s on-line form to request a new salt bin or to ask for an existing salt bin to be refilled.
Requests for new salt bins are assessed against specific criteria set out in the Winter Service Plan.
