Macclesfield Town Council to pay for gritting

Following news that Cheshire East Council has decided to remove 142 miles of roads across the borough from its road gritting programme Macclesfield Town Council has announced it will cover the costs of affected local gritting.

The council voted to fund gritting after recent snowfall caused problems in some areas of the town.

The town council’s deputy mayor Fiona Wilson said the decision was one of public safety after concerns were raised by residents saying it would provide a “stop-gap between now and the review in April” and that the town council “like to step up and provide support” when the borough has a lack of funding.

She added that the town was now waiting for Cheshire East to give it permission to either appoint their own contractor or accept funds to pay Cheshire East’s highways department for the cost of gritting the roads.

The town council also intends to ask for its roads to be reinstated to the borough’s gritting plan.

The head teacher of a school which is on one of the roads removed from the plan said there has been “chaos” during recent bad weather.

Whirley Primary School’s Amanda Edwards, who raised concerns about the changes in November, said the impact of the weather in Whirley Road “brought a clear message it needed to be gritted”.

Cheshire East Council said the town council’s request was being considered, adding that the funding of gritting was a “complex matter”.

A spokesman said the authority was “always open to exploring innovative ways of working with our town and parish councils, where they are practical, legally sound and cost-effective”.

The National Association of Local Councils, which represents the interests of about 10,000 local councils, said town and parish authorities were “increasingly taking on additional responsibilities and using their own funding on local services”.

“Local councils have an essential role in community resilience and helping prepare for emergencies, working with local partners to ensure the best use of available resources,” a spokesman said.

Of course the logical implication is that Cheshire East will divest itself of the same responsibility in future years – and then again, why stop at the gritting of Macclesfield’s roads – could waste collections be next?

There should also be questions asked as to how it is that Macclesfield Town Council’s have what must surely be significant surplus funds to cover what are Cheshire East’s responsibilities.

Or maybe a significant increase in the Town Council’s precept is on the cards for next year?