Winter of discontent
Date published: 27 April 2010
MIKE BUCKLEY . . . wants parish council involved with Oldham Council in planning for winter weather
Lewis Jones
SADDLEWORTH PARISH COUNCIL: Members of Saddleworth Parish Council clashed over the future handling of the effects of treacherous winter weather.
“It all happens in Saddleworth,” said Councillor Mike Buckley.
He called for the council’s transport sub-committee to get involved with Oldham Council’s review of its handling of the big freeze — and what can be done better in the future.
He said: “We are the ones that get the brunt of the weather, compared with the rest of the borough.
“This is an opportunity for a rethink. Rather than fighting to keep every A-road and through-road open, it would be more beneficial to pay attention to the next roads down and clear those.”
He also suggested that signs need to be installed to educate residents on how to use grit bins, to avoid overuse and a following shortage of supply.
But Councillor John Hudson disagreed: “We had a hell of a bad winter but people protesting and moaning now would have been the first to complain if the council had spent lots of money running grit depots when we had mild winter after mild winter.
“The world doesn’t revolve around Saddleworth as much as we might think, and people in other areas of the borough feel just as aggrieved — even the best councils came a cropper, because it wasn’t expected.”
Councillor Ken Hulme said it was a mistake by Oldham Council to close the Delph grit depot some years ago and questioned whether a similar service could be reopened to help Saddleworth deal with future bouts of deep snow and ice.
But John Hudson protested that residents in other wards had to deal with similar conditions during the winter freeze.
