Cllr Ross Carter queries council's snow action

Brentwood North's Cllr Ross Carter has questioned the activities of Essex and Brentwood Councils after receiving multiple calls from residents who are stranded or facing dangerous conditions in an effort to go about their normal daily business.

Cllr Carter and Brentwood North Liberal Democrats requested at Brentwood Council's last Environment Panel that the following areas be added to Brentwood Council's gritting programme: Park Road, Weald Road, The Vale, Vine Way, Mayfield Gardens and Geary Drive. The Conservatives response was to decline to discuss this in the meeting! Subsequent responses confirmed that no alterations would be made to the gritting schedule.

Residents say Greenshaw and Costead Manor Road, which are on a bus route and should be gritted first, had not been gritted at 9.30am yesterday morning and neither had the pavement outside St Georges Court, an elderly persons accommodation, on Highwood Close or Ongar Road between Sainsburys and the bridge over the A12. The corner of The Vale and Mayfield Gardens is absolutely treacherous for vehicles trying to turn into The Vale.

Cllr Carter said:

"Last night in The Vale, I watched a white van skid out of control, narrowly missing a group of pedestrians, who were very shaken.

"Personally, I haven't seen much of the grit trucks in the area of Brentwood North in which I live. In Thurrock, the grit trucks are everywhere and they publicise the routes they take on their website for residents to see - I haven't seen the trucks here nearly as much.

"If I could be given some grit myself as part of the ECC salt bag scheme to grit this myself this would be much appreciated as the incident last night was very frightening, and I could do even more to help my residents."