City hopes to learn lessons from Big Freeze to stop costly slip-ups

York Council's winter gritting procedures came under intense scrutiny at the start of the year during the prolonged sub-zero conditions.

Many councillors received complaints, particularly about the state of footpaths in York but also about some roads and cycle paths which the public felt had not been gritted.

Concerns were also expressed about the positioning of salt bins in the city, leading to plans being drawn up for an overhaul of the council's winter maintenance services.

York Council leader Andrew Waller admitted yesterday that clarification was being sought by the Local Government Association to establish the liability for clearing footpaths and cycleways for both councils and members of the public.

Coun Waller urged the Government to set out national guidelines in new legislation to help to prevent local authorities facing potentially costly legal battles from people who have tripped or slipped on footpaths.

He added: "As long as we demonstrate that we have done all we can to ensure that footpaths and cycleways have been kept in the best possible state, I would hope that we would be able to avoid any legal challenge from an individual.

"But we do get people throughout the year who apply for compensation, and the concerns expressed during the last winter have heightened our awareness of the issue.

"Hopefully we will be able to strike the right balance with the proposed changes which have been drawn up under the review."

Council chiefs in York have confirmed that they spent nearly 900,000 on the winter maintenance programme, almost double the amount initially set aside, because of the severe weather conditions.

Coun Waller stressed he hopes the winter maintenance budgets will not have to be reduced despite swingeing public sector cuts being drawn up by the Government.

The overhaul of the council's winter maintenance services is due to see salt bags distributed to key locations across the city in severe weather conditions to supplement the stocks in the existing network of grit bins.

The treatment of footpaths is being extended to include parts of Bishopthorpe Road and Acomb Front Street. The network of main roads and secondary routes which are gritted is also being widened, and a winter maintenance task group is being established to co-ordinate the council's response to severe weather.

A 24-hour telephone service is also due to be launched to give residents and businesses an easy point of contact to report problem areas to the council.

York Council's executive member for neighbourhood services, Coun Ann Reid, said the efforts of the authority's staff during the big freeze dealt with most of the city's routes effectively.

She added: "We carry out regular reviews of our winter maintenance procedures, even when the winter weather isn't so bad, but this year the weather was especially severe so we were faced with much more extreme challenges in our efforts to keep the city's roads clear.

"Despite the weather, staff did an excellent job of keeping the city moving but the scale of the snowfall really tested our procedures, so we asked for this review to recommend some refinements to the procedures so they can be even more effective, should we ever experience such severe weather again."

Members of York Council's executive are due to approve the proposed overhaul of the winter maintenance services at a meeting on Tuesday next week.