Winter
roadsBy Barnaby Usborne
Black ice and slippery roads are still a dangerous if infrequent feature of our winters despite global warming. We have come to rely on the county council to spread salt and grit on our main roads so that school buses and commuters can travel our lanes safely. No more.
In response to the reduction in subsidy from central government the County Council has decided to cut back on preventative salting in Buckinghamshire.
For us this means that the only parish road to be gritted will be Ballinger Road up to the Chartridge Road junction, and from there through to Chartridge. Roads which were previously gritted but have now dropped off the list include the road from Red Lion Hill through Swan Bottom, Kings Ash and Rocky Lane; Potter Row; the roads from The Lee to Red Lion Hill and to Swan Bottom; and Oxford Street. The effect of this reduction can be seen on the map.
There was strong criticism of the county’s proposal from the small band of people who attended the Parish Council meeting on 14th November. Your County, District and Parish Councillors were there to listen and promised to do their best to get some, if not all, the danger spots gritted. Red Lion Hill and Rocky Lane were felt to be particularly important, not only to local residents but also for the through traffic that uses the road.
We are not alone in suffering a reduction in gritting. All of our county is affected. But for the hill-top villages with their hills and narrow windy roads, icy roads are a particular problem. We have banded together with our neighbouring parishes to make our views known to the county authorities. It sounds as though for them it is a question of priorities.