Still cut off by the snow

Photo: Darren Robinson

IMPASSABLE . . . Liz Needle and her grandson Finley on the ice-covered lane, which even their four-wheel drive vehicle can't handle

A Saddleworth family still frozen in at their remote Uppermill home fear another snowfall this weekend will leave them without heating oil.

Jan and Liz Needle, their daughter Sadie and her husband Sean and their two small children have been unable to get a vehicle to their smallholding at Rye Top, beneath Pots and Pans, for over two weeks.

The only vehicle which can reach their house, where they keep two horses and eight chickens, is a tractor from the neighbouring farm delivering hay.

And they are trapped by an ice barrier which formed after drifting snow filled their unmade lane, off Knowl Top Lane.

Liz, married to children’s books author Jan, said: “I fear we are the only people still cut off by the snow, and with a forecast for more snow this weekend I’m really frightened.

“We already have 6ft drifts.

“We rely on oil for heating and the tanker can’t get here. We have lived here 22 years, and I have never known snow for this length of time.

“We don’t have a grit bin. We normally have a dump of grit at the end of the lane, but it hasn’t arrived this year.

“I have asked the council for some grit but they were vaguely non-committal. We’re happy to spread it, but it’s a long way to the nearest grit bin.”

Her grandson, Finley (3), is still at home and grand-daughter, Isabella (6), is managing to walk to St Chad’s School in Uppermill. They have been walking out for food, but the family’s four-wheel drive Jeep cannot make it the few hundred yards up the lane to their home.

Liz said: “I wasn’t frightened at first, but now I’m starting to get cabin fever, and if it starts all over again we will be really stuck.”

A council spokesman said the lane to the house is not gritted because it is unadopted, but promised a gritter would be sent up Knowl Top Lane as soon as possible.


We coped admirably: council

Council operations are back to normal after staff battled the coldest winter in Oldham for 30 years.

The council’s 10 gritters, which were out 24 hours a day, spread 6,000 tons of grit and covered more than 10,000 miles.

In some parts of Oldham, snow drifts were over 10ft high meaning some roads, lanes, and pathways were inaccessible to vehicles.

Councillor Mark Alcock, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said: “The fact that snow is still visible in some areas two weeks after the last flakes fell shows how much the council and our residents had to contend with.

“The snow was the heaviest we have had in years and we coped admirably thanks to the hard work of council employees and the help and understanding of residents.

“Thankfully, apart from small pockets the borough is now snow free and all our operations have returned to normal.”