Tory-controlled county council "have learnt little about bad weather action"

County Councillors Barry Aspinell and David Kendall have been working on behalf of residents to help them through the conditions caused by the snow and ice today.

County Councillor David Kendall contacted the Western Area Highways office first this morning calling for more gritting to be done on Brentwood's roads as traffic was at a virtual standstill on all the main routes in and out of the town. He also expressed his concerns regarding the lack of salt bags in the urban parts of Brentwood because many residents in the side roads were completely marooned in their homes with little choice but to dig their way out. He was assured by County officers that more gritting was going to be done as soon as possible on the major roads and consideration would then be given as to what could be done to other roads in the Borough.

Meanwhile, Cllr Barry Aspinell has been out in the snow this morning calling at some residents of sheltered accommodation to check whether they require help or provisions if they are unable to safely leave their house.

Borough councillor Karen Chilvers was also busy tweeting the news of school closures as it came in whilst Cllr Ross Carter was fielding calls from stranded residents,

Cllr Kendall e-mailed Cllr Norman Hume, the County Cabinet member with responsibility for Highways to let him know how angry and frustrated many Brentwood residents felt about the situation. He said:

"I was hoping that the County Council had learnt from the terrible conditions residents experienced last winter, however little seems to have changed with the County's ability to react as slow and cumbersome as ever".

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Information for residents:

Generally, the routes that are gritted in Brentwood (i.e. the precautionary network) include all of the following major routes:

• 'A' and 'B' roads; access routes for emergency services
• Rural link roads
• Bus routes carrying four or more buses per day, five days a week
• Roads to fire, ambulance and Police stations.

To check which roads will be gritted visit www.essex.gov.uk/winter

Brentwood Council is treating the following:

• Footway areas in Brentwood High Street
• Shenfield shopping areas
• Ingatestone High Street
• Brentwood station area
• Shenfield station area and the many smaller shopping parades around the Borough (Woodland Avenue shops, Rayleigh Road shopping parade etc)
• Job Centre in Fairfield Road

Useful contacts:

Essex Traffic control centre (Monday to Friday 7am - 7pm)

Telephone: 0845 600 0110

Brentwood out of hours call out:

General enquiries: 01277 262728

Emergency Housing repairs: 01277 261112