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Gritters in 'right sites'
Feb 27 2004
By Neil Elkes, Evening Mail
Birmingham's transport chief today defended the snow gritting policy in the wake of criticism after an official inquiry into last month's gridlock.
Cabinet transport chief John Tyrrell spoke out after Coun Len Gregory (Con, Hall Green), who led the investigation into the traffic chaos, slammed his department.
He said there should be more gritting lorry depots in the city and blamed cutbacks for the lack of coverage.
But Coun Tyrrell (Lab, Sandwell) defended the siting of the trucks in Aston, at Park Lane and Thimble Mill Road.
He said: "If Coun Gregory wants gritters on every street then perhaps he should tell me how we should pay for them.
"The reason for consolidating the winter gritting operations at Thimble Mill Lane was not budgetary - this has allowed us to develop a much better maintenance strategy for the vehicles and arrested deterioration and eliminated the constant vandalism."
He added that to move gritters and salt storage to satellite areas around the city would require costly development work to prevent salt pollution.
"Our depot has a purpose-built storage area with cut off drainage to prevent ground pollution," he said.
He insisted they could not afford a series of similar facilities at satellite depots.
Coun Tyrrell said the gritting operation had proved successful on every occasion except January 28.
"I believe there were several mitigating circumstances, especially the rush hour congestion starting in midafternoon," he added.
The inquiry's conclusions are expected to be made public next month.
