Councillors meet with Highways officers over gritting mayhem

I, together with a number of other Southport councillors, met with senior Council officers today to try and get answers on why there has been such poor performance locally in clearing main roads and town centre pavements of snow and ice.

The councillors including both Liberal Democrats and Conservatives asked a wide range of questions about the Council's response to the severe weather including why no snow ploughs were sent to the main roads in Southport, why Chapel Street and Lord Street were left like ice rinks, why the large snow fall didn't appear to be classed as an emergency, why there was a delay in redeploying staff  to clearing pavements, for full details on the activities of the gritting vehicles and many more. 

I will try to detail the answers in another post shortly but I must give one answer to a question which many people have been asking - Sefton did not sell or give any grit to Liverpool Council.

The Officers will be providing a report at next weeks Southport Area Committee meeting (5th January at 6:30pm at Southport town Hall)

Wrong kind of Snow !

Many many residents have contacted me to express their shock and dismay that the roads and footpaths show absolutely no improvement almost a week after the snow fell.


I have asked officers from the Highways Team to attend the Southport Area Committee meeting on the 5th January to report on how they have handled the current situation and to answer questions from councillors and residents. 

I am sure that the current procedures and protocols used may be adequate to deal with frost or light snow fall but I think they need to be reviewed in light of this the second year of heavy snow fall.

Any review must also recognise the demographics of the population in Southport specifically the large number of elderly people who have in effect been housebound since the cold weather arrived.  I will also be asking why the main shopping areas are almost impassable in what is the busiest period in the run up to Christmas.