Cuts to winter road gritting in North Yorkshire start of slippery slope - Yorkshire Post Letters

I SYMPATHISE with residents 
in Richmondshire, Harrogate and Craven when officials 
refuse to consider additional winter gritting of roads 
(The Yorkshire Post, August 
17).

Requests for a review by residents, councillors and businesses are just put to 
one side by officers on the grounds of not enough money being in the highways budget.

As more larger housing 
estates are being built, often in areas where there is an incline due to the topography of the land, there is a need for road gritting.

At the same time, more income is generated for North Yorkshire County Council 
with additional council tax revenues due to the increase in properties.

I hope that these requests have had a proper ‘‘risk assessment’’, and that these are made public to those who requested 42 routes of additional winter gritting in the four district authorities in North Yorkshire.

With a larger unitary 
authority from 2023, and the inevitable financial pressures across the county, I would like to put on record my prediction that things are bound to get a lot worse regarding highway maintenance, as the passage of time will tell.

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