COUNCIL bosses are making a partial U-turn on road gritting cutbacks, after a public outcry.

This winter, Bradford Council cut its gritting routes from 60 to 50 per cent of the road network, to save £70,000.

The rate was set to fall to just 42 per cent next winter, to save a further £40,000, under a plan agreed in last year’s budget. It would have seen gritting confined to main roads and major link roads only.

But despite a relatively mild winter, there were chaotic scenes across the district as cars struggled in icy and snowy conditions and as a result the authority is now looking at reinstating some of the axed routes, rather than cutting them further.

Labour councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, whose portfolio includes highways, said they took public feedback seriously.

He said: “We received a lot of feedback from elected members and the public about the impact of this year’s changes.

“It was never an easy decision to make but the scale of government cuts mean we have to look at every area when making these cuts.”

He said they would make other efficiencies to ensure at least half the road network remained on gritting routes next year.

And added to the gritting budgets will be an extra £25,000 a year, raised through a better enforcement of a roadworks permit scheme.

Cllr Ross-Shaw said: “We can use this income to put a little bit back into the gritting service, which we know is something the public were keen to see. The precise streets that will be put back onto a gritting route will be determined in liaison with elected members.

“The funding will also be used to work with communities in setting up volunteer grit teams to encourage people to look after their own streets where we cannot justify putting it on the main gritting network.”

The Council’s Stockbridge depot, used as a base for gritting teams in the Keighley area, will also remain open, despite previous plans to close it - funded by increased income from planning and highways services.

Councillor Rebecca Poulsen, of the opposition Conservative group, gave the news a lukewarm welcome.

She said: “My colleagues and I who represent small villages and rural communities have been inundated with complaints and queries from residents, desperate to know whether their roads are still on the routes to be gritted.”

But the Tories said they would restore all gritting routes back to 2015/16 levels under their alternative budget plans.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said cutting gritting had been a false economy.

She gave the example of a bad crash in Ley Fleaks Road, Idle, during snowy weather last month, which was captured on video by a nearby driver.

She said: “The Council saved £300 by not gritting Ley Fleaks Road in Idle.

“It cost the police the wages of four police officers and two vehicles, as well as an ambulance and two people who had to come out and clean up the mess and grit it.

“So the cut was a ridiculous thing to do in the first place.”

There is an amber weather warning in place today as Yorkshire braces itself for Storm Doris.

Heavy winds and rain are expected, as well as snow over high ground, the Met Office has said.

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