East Kilbride residents' anger over icy roads

Dec 30 2009 by Lynda Nicol, East Kilbride News

MORE than two weeks after ice and snow first brought much of Scotland slithering to a halt furious East Kilbride residents are continuing to flood the News with complaints over what they say is the total inadequacy of South Lanarkshire Council’s road gritting programme.

Not only that, the complainers – via telephone, letters and e-mail – are also expressing anger over the council’s handling of their grievances and at what many say is the “haphazard” way the council is tackling the problem.

Most of the complaints have been about the failure to put any grit at all on many of the town’s side roads and pavements, including hilly areas or to keep grit bins topped up to enable residents to tackle the problems themselves.

The icy conditions have resulted in countless falls and injuries and many residents, particularly the elderly and infirm, have complained of being too frightened to leave their homes throughout the festive season because of the icy pavements.

Brian Wood’s wife, for example, fell and broke her finger after slipping on an icy pavement in St Leonards.

He told the News it was six days after he complained before he saw any sign of a gritting lorry.

But the list of complaints has been wide ranging – from allegedly lazy council workers, hands in pockets, kicking grit from a lorry onto a footpath rather than using a shovel to areas round schools being gritted just minutes before they broke up for the festive holidays.

One angry Whitehills resident told the News she had been gobsmacked when, instead of a grit lorry turning up to tackle their street, a bin lorry had arrived – on a Sunday – to make a special collection of two black bags of rubbish.

Mrs Margaret Wootton explained: “Tivoli Court where I live is on a hill. But no gritters came near us until Sunday. But that was just to rescue the bin lorry, which, got stuck because of the icy road surface. All the workmen did was put down enough grit to let the bin lorry get going. They refused to grit the rest of our circle or to top up our empty grit bin.

“The whole road situation is scandalous.”

A Stewartfield resident said, while he agreed schools should be treated as a priority, he could not see the rationale behind gritting round schools as pupils had dispersed for the Christmas holidays.

He added: “Travelling around I have found other councils seem to be tackling the icy weather better.

“We pay our council tax the same as other people – perhaps it is time South Lanarkshire Council had a close look at what they are spending our money on.”

Their sentiments were echoed by many other complainers.

A spokeswoman for South Lanarkshire Council confirmed they had been inundated by calls from residents and added council staff were working all-out to tackle the problem.

She added: “An expected salt delivery of 270 tonnes arrived this morning (Tuesday) in South Lanarkshire and the priority remains treating our main roads – covering 60 per cent of the network.

“Due to the continuing extreme weather nationally of freezing temperatures and repeated snowfalls for a sustained period our salt supplier based in Cheshire has been unable to meet their contractual obligations.

“However, the roads service is sourcing alternative supplies from other salt providers and will continue our round-the-clock operation.

“On Sunday the roads service arranged for a haulage firm to travel to Cheshire to collect 500 tonnes of salt. Today (December 29), we have 2660 tonnes of salt in our reserves.

“Given the anticipated long-range forecast, the council will continue to prioritise its efforts on main routes. Treating pavements and the filling of grit bins is currently suspended.

“The dedicated roads service team continues to work round-the-clock from all of our four main operational centres to ensure main routes are kept in a safe condition.

“The roads network in South Lanarkshire covers 2300km with 60 per cent being gritted twice a day.

“The council advises the public to take extra care and drive according to the conditions even when you think a road has been salted.”