Council cuts could mean some residential roads in Middleton may remain ungritted this winter.
A shake-up of council gritting services could see the number of currently treated areas reduced in the event of severe winter weather.
Two routes currently salted during freezing conditions across the town could be scrapped under new proposals by the council.
Under plans gritters will continue to spread salt on all priority routes for schools and ambulances but other standard treatment routes could be stopped in a bid to save money.
A decision is set to be made by the council's cabinet this month with members of Middleton Township able to discuss the report at a later date.
Standard gritting routes which could no longer be treated include Wythburn Road from Windermere Road to Langley Lane and Tennyson Road from Boarshaw Road to Stannycliffe Lane.
A report by David Nicholson, director of Highways, says the changes could save up to £13,000.
He adds: "Removal of routes from the standard treatment routes will generate savings.
"The exact savings will depend on the extent of the routes.
"There are no strict guidelines regarding the inclusion of routes on the standard treatment routes, therefore the identified routes can be removed to generate savings at the discretion of cabinet."
In total the council has budgeted more than £1.1m to spend on gritting and other treatment this winter.
This is made up from a base budget of £389k, £445k diverted highway maintenance and £330k which has been carried over from last year.
As well as proposing to axe the number of gritted routes other winter policy options have also been proposed by the council.
These include increasing the number of salt bins which could cost at least £10,000, provide salt bins at each place of worship across the borough which could amount to more than £50,000 and the treatment of all adopted routes to churches on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day which could cost more than £3,000.
Mr Nicholson added: "The financial implications of some of the options will also vary significantly depending on the severity of the winter season each year.
"No additional funding will be made available for the selected further improvements to the winter service and therefore any additional costs will have to be managed within the existing winter service budget."
Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
THE COUNCIL HAS A DUTY OF CARE UNDER the Highways Act :-
Section 41 of the Act places a statutory duty on Highway Authorities to
maintain public maintainable highways.
1.4. An amendment to Section 41 was made 2003, coming into force on 10
September 2003. The following sub-section was added:-
“(1A) In particular, a highway authority is under a duty to ensure, so far, as is
reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered
by snow and ice.”
1.5. The duty is not however to simply clear snow and ice. The wording of the
amendment puts a duty on the highway authority to ensure snow or ice does
not endanger safe passage. Therefore, preventative gritting falls within this
new duty.
Whats the point of gritting the main roads if nobody can get to them, as happened to me last year, nobody could get off our road. the bin men could not get up and an ambulance man had to walk up to attend to an old lady who had taken ill, i sometimes wonder what we pay our council tax for ?
ha gritting could not be cut back any further! there isn't any!
Is this a wind up? a saving of £13,000 that is less than the cost of unneeded postage phone calls /stationary of ONE dept. alone by the council. The response over the last few winters has been an absolute disgrace bY RMBC .Roads and pavements not cleared,legal obligations ignored,bins not emptied,schools closed.
If this happens again a council tax strike and rebate for residents would be a good response.I seem to recall a councillor Peter Williams calling last year for a rebate for ALL Middleton residents due to the failure of RMBC to provide a service.However Labour were then in opposition on the council,now that they control the council after seizing minority control ,what now is there view? Answers please Mr Williams and Lambert,what do you now say if the council fail again?