A Kirklees councillor has launched an attack on critics of the council’s gritting operation.
Kirklees Council faces some criticism for its gritting efforts – but so does the Examiner and its readers, with one councillor branding those who complained as “d***heads”.
Clr Molly Walton, 80, spoke out at Full Council after asking for more information so she could respond to critics.
Clr Walton, Crosland Moor and Netherton Labour, said: “I’d like to get a point out, and make a comment as well, to Clr Hall that I think we do about 15-20% more gritting than any of the other authorities, than the average authority.
“I would like us to find out, seeing as there were all the d***heads in the Examiner that were criticising us, all these here, the opposition criticising, and we do more, and always have done years ago, more than the average.
“I would just like to find out, what are they like these others? “There was one guy who said he came all the way from miles away and he got to Kirklees he got stuck. We do more than all these do so how the hell did he managed to come all that way.
“I just think sometimes we have to get that information and be able to answer and many times I’d like to but we haven’t got the accurate information and I think we’re going to have to start doing that because we’re seeing officers and the people working under hellish conditions and with stress within the authority and they’re being derided as idiots.”
Her comment appears to stem from a letter published on January 1 where a reader reported on a 120-mile journey from Northamptonshire back to Holmfirth, which was “flowing smoothly” until he reached Kirklees and was met with sheet ice and compacted snow.
Kirklees has announced it is to test its grit to see if it can be improved.
