Council fails to show true grit.

Thankfully the snow and ice are starting to recede and things are returning to normal. It’s time for an inquest into the problems Stockport residents experienced to make sure we are not caught out so badly in future.

During November the Council’s grit stores were, we are told, full and the Council was able to deal with the first snowfall before Christmas relatively well – most main roads were clear within 48 hours and many secondary routes gritted. Then came a short lull before the major snowfall at Christmas. At that point everything came unstuck. Traffic ground to a standstill or, in some cases, a slow spin. Older people were reportedly stuck in their homes for days for fear of falling on ungritted pavements. Complaints rolled in from people who hadn’t had bins collected since well before Christmas. Some areas were virtually cut-off. Information coming out of the Council was disjointed or non-existent.

Councillors were eventually informed that only main roads would be gritted. Many District and Town Centre pavements were left to become limb threatening ice-rinks not gritted for days. Main roads on the hills in and out of Marple were not immediately cleared, causing serious problems for residents for the best part of a week. Residents in snowbound side roads all over Stockport were simply abandoned by the Council.

Where was the Executive Councillor for Transportation during all this? There seemed to be a real lack of leadership during the crisis. Surely it should have been up to him to take control and provide direction. There are some key things the Council could have done differently in co-ordinating and communicating their response to this crisis that would have made a big difference to Stockport’s residents. We clearly need a full review of this Liberal Democrat debacle and to reformulate plans to manage a similar situation in the future. Residents must not be let down so badly again.

Cllr Syd Lloyd
Bredbury Green & Romiley

This article, by Cllr Syd Lloyd, was first published by the Stockport Express on 20.01.10.