IT'S good that the Council has seen the light and is using common sense in the face of public protest in scaling back some reductions in its gritting service.

Of course, it's always difficult to get the balance right with the levels of gritting and the levels of road salt that needs to be purchased and stocked as no-one can accurately predict the weather in the long-term.

But keeping roads as safe as possible in all conditions is obviously vital to allow the district to function as normally as possible in adverse conditions and it is not an area where any council can afford to be caught napping or caught short over their contingency plans.

Although this winter has so far been a relatively mild one, the few cold snaps that we have experienced have brought with them numerous complaints about the lack of gritting on roads that had previously been treated as the routes were cut from 60 per cent to 50 per cent of the district's highways network.

And some accidents have occurred as a result.

It is encouraging that the Council has now rowed back over what could have been potentially disastrous circumstances with an extra £25,000 a year being made available for gritting, which includes funding to form more volunteer grit teams to treat roads which cannot be put on the main gritting network.

Other cash has also been found to keep the closure-threatened Stockbridge depot in Keighley open.

There should be a collective sigh of relief from drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike.