Snow latest - Kirklees Council's £12k a day gritting bill

Feb 4 2009 by Katie Campling, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Winter beats gritting teams as snow wreaks havoc on Huddersfield’s roads

HIGHWAYS teams have been overwhelmed with the snow – but Kirklees Council says it will not invest more in gritting operations.

Gritting on Kirklees roads is costing £12,000 a day – but questions are being raised about whether more should be spent on treating roads.

Overnight, there are just four gritters covering the whole district.

During the day, 31 gritting teams and five tractor ploughs have been on patrol – but they have been worked so hard over the past few days that some grit wagons broke down.

Yet Clr David Sheard, Kirklees Council cabinet member for transport, said no more will be spent on gritting as the fleet is already working flat out.

“We have only got so many vehicles, they can’t be everywhere at once,” he said. “But if you buy more vehicles you are talking about a big cost for a couple of weeks a year.”

However, he said the Labour and Lib Dem cabinet will review gritting procedures.

“We have got a contingency to deal with bad weather and we spend it as we can. At the moment we are following the plans of previous members,” he said.

“We agree that the priority is to keep main roads open, but that doesn’t help people stuck in their houses. We need to look at priorities and have a careful look at where we are going. Gritting is carried out first on ‘strategic’ roads, such as major link routes.

Usually, gritters quickly move on to ‘priority’ routes, which include A roads, B roads, steep roads and through roads on estates.