A couple of years ago I tried to get some extra grit bins for residents. I was successful with a few and not with others.

So I started looking at the criteria and through making sure that the surveying was done in exactly the right place on particular roads, managed to be successful for more residents, but still some areas remained without grit bins.

So I managed to get the criteria changed by pressuring for a review. As a result I got another two grit bins, but still had outstanding areas.

Last year under the new criteria, I repeated some requests and was successful, but not for all locations.

A few months ago I was asked about more areas, as were my fellow councillors in Newton Hall, Amanda and Mamie, so we set about trying to get some more. And now the fun has really started.

The system requires “OVER 150 points” to be scored from up to 11 criteria. These include steepness of roads, nearness to doctors surgeries, sharpness of bends, whether the road is on a bus route, if there have been any accidents…………….

Looking at the criteria I put in further requests. Some results have come back and whilst I am unhappy and so are residents, the criteria have been met properly – though I can still see the benefits of having them at these locations.

So I asked if I could use local funds and was refused permission even though I offered to pay for a few years worth of filling of them too.

Instead I managed to get the council to agree to let me put some sacks of grit in certain areas which I did in Brasside, Pity Me and Framwellgate Moor after complaints from residents. But clearly when they are empty they don’t get refilled and there is only so much local funding you can use at £94 a sack!

Now I have some more requests back in, however I have now come to the conclusion that the whole system is a joke. What one officer’s view of “Distance from another grit bin” is at their discretion or “within walking distance”. What one officer thinks is a steep slope another may think is almost flat. (Believe me I have a score for one street as being flat when it drops nearly 10m in altitude over its length!)

A request for one street has come back at 130 points. I went through the list and found that one of the criteria had been ignored, which brought it up to 150 points, but not OVER 150 points as required.

So I phoned up and asked how many of the other 2000 grit bins around the county met the current criteria and was told that as many as 500 and possibly more would not meet the criteria. Removing a grit bin would be political suicide for any politician but surely this isn’t fair.

I then checked another criterion and discovered that there had been two accidents on the street in question but these hadn’t been taken into account. Great – I have managed to get to 170 points! But now I must wait for senior officers to look at it though – because what is considered an accident record by one officer may be different from another.

I will list the scores for all the requests after I have answers to all of my challenges completed.

The lunacy of this whole system is becoming apparent. Yes we have limited resources and need to be careful how we spend taxpayers money. But we have 500 grit bins which don’t meet the criteria and locations which would score more highly which don;t have a grit bin. Then there are councillors willing to use local funding to put in bins but being refused. And then you are at the whim of the different ways in which officers interpret the rules. So you have to be cunning and determine exactly where you want the survey to be done to get it in just the right location. And then you have to check and check again that it has been done properly not by a quick glance at Google Maps.

It did occur to me that it might be quicker to wait until it snows and go and help clear the snow with residents – as I have done in the past but the principle of getting this sorted out has now turned into somewhat of a challenge. Perhaps only a change in control at County Hall can put in place a decent system or perhaps senior officers will see fit to back up the criteria with proper rules.

With more snow likely to turn up before the end of the winter, I expect a few more calls yet about this one but with gritted teeth I am determined to get at least a few more salt bins out there!