Last month I mentioned in detail my problems trying to get grit bins. If you haven’t already read, perhaps do so first before reading on:

http://markwilkes.mycouncillor.org.uk/2013/02/22/battle-of-the-grit-bins/

After being refused grit bins we negotiated with the council to get sacks of grit put in some areas but at a cost of £94 a time this is clearly unsustainable.

After meeting out on site around Caterhouse Road and Brackenfield Road and the surrounding streets with senior highways staff and pointing out the disgraceful state of the road surface, we got on to grit bins and the repeated refusal to provide any in this area.

I was promised a fast re-scoring of the area to see if we could have at least one grit bin. The response, not fast, came this week. Why it has to take so many weeks to re-score this is beyond me.

Anyway, the council has flatly refused to change its score for this area, so over 200 houses have no grit bin at all. The list of criteria the council uses to decide if an area needs a grit bin includes:

Accident History: There is nothing in the council criteria explaining what Accident History means though. There have been accidents in this area, at least one caused by ice. But no, this didn’t meet the criteria. I still have no answer as to what an accident record is!

Not on a Priority Route: So, the council will score 20 points if the site is not on a gritting route. Or so I thought. Many of the other surveys they have done included 20 points for estate roads. Suddenly though I am told that the criteria sheet – cleared by councillors, cleared by senior officers, used for over a year, IS WRONG. No points scored if it is not a Priority 1 or a Priority 2 or an OTHER route. All very odd.

Put simply I have come to the following conclusion in respect of this area: You want a grit bin Mark, we will find a way to make sure you can’t have one!

I have made a formal complaint and want to see the full explanation of what the council definition of an accident history, an “other” grit route, a slope, a bend etc etc is. They do not at their own admission have any of this documented. It is about time they did. How can you have criteria but absolutely no document to explain the criteria.

For example, a steep slope gets a certain number of points, a less steep slope fewer points, a flat road no points, but there is no document saying how steep a slope has to be to get the points – ludicrous.

What this means is that the highways officers across the county can pretty much make it up as they go along.

Meanwhile over 200 houses and NO GRIT BIN. The same goes for other areas like The Avenue/Hartside/Hudspeth in Pity Me and the Terraces behind Fram Front St. So much for an altogether better council. At least residents on these streets can now be told the truth – that the Labour council doesn’t care less that you can’t get the home help down to you in the snow, that the ambulances will have to struggle, that hard working people will have to trudge hundreds of metres in the snow and ice to find some grit, so they can get the car out to go to work. All this less than a mile from Durham City. Shameful.

So if you live on Ghyllfield Road, Brackenfield Road, Caterhouse Road, Frankland Road, your nearest grit bin is up on Flambard Road outside the Communual Hall. So if you live on Caterhouse Road you will have to WALK over 1400 metres in total there and back in the snow to carry heavy grit back to your street.

The only alternative is for local councillors to use local money to fund sacks of grit/salt, but at £94 a time this is simply not sustainable. We have had to do this but – but should we really have to?

It is clearly barking mad to have to keep finding money for a sacks of grit when a simple grit bin in the area would solve the problem. Come on Durham County Council see some sense here and stop residents having to carry salt and grit for 700 metres so they can get out to work!