RESIDENTS of Grit Lane, Malvern, are angry because their road is not regularly gritted in icy weather, despite its name.
They want the residential road, which links Tanhouse Lane and Leigh Sinton Road, to be on the priority list for gritting because of the number of accidents that happen on the sharp bend when the temperature drops below zero.
Dave Roberts, who lives near the bend, said: “We have been asking for some years now to have the bend gritted because every time we have icy weather, we get cars coming off the road here. On one occasion we had seven accidents in one day.
“The bend is 50 yards from Tanhouse Lane, which does get gritted, so why can't the county council send its gritter the extra 50 yards? Do we have to wait for someone to be seriously injured before something is done?”
Mary Foster, of Grit Lane, said: “Any time there’s ice and snow, or snow compacting to ice, I sit and watch the drivers come round this bend and go straight into the bank.
It’s not far for the council to come and put grit down and it would save so much trouble.”
Douglas Walters, another resident, said: “Grit Lane is used as a rat-run and people who don’t know the road come speeding down and hit the ice.”
County councillor Beverly Nielsen said: “I’ve been told Grit Lane doesn’t meet the criteria to be part of the main gritting routes, but the residents are the people on the spot, they see what’s happening every winter, so I have to listen to them.”
Jon Fraser, Worcestershire County Council's customer and community manager, said: “Unfortunately, Grit Lane doesn’t meet our criteria for the principal gritting route. However, the county council does maintain over 1,200 grit bins across the county and the location at Grit Lane can be assessed.”
Vicky Bristow of the Safer Road Partnership said records going back to January 2009 showed no injury accidents in Grit Lane.
She said: “We had a couple of damage-only collisions recorded in December 2010, followed by a call from a resident requesting gritting, which we referred to the highways authority.”
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