Published: Wednesday, 13th January, 2010 10:32am

'COUNCIL DIDN'T SHOW TRUE GRIT'

by John Martin Fulton

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Irvine councillor hits out at lack of action over festive freeze

AN IRVINE councillor has blasted the council over its failure to keep Irvine town centre clear of ice over the past month.

Councillor Matt Brown hit out at the state of pavements and footpaths in the town over the busy festive period - claiming that the normal practice of getting groundsmen to clear pavements didn't take place until it was too late.

And he has called on North Ayrshire Council to put in more stringent measures to prevent the situation ever happening again.

This week the SNP group leader told the Times that he was happy to accept that council workers had cleared the area's roads well.

"I acknowledge that there was a good job done in regard to the roads," he said.

"However, there was a disgraceful dereliction of duty in response to town centres. I am fully aware that they couldn't possibly grit every road in every town. But the snow started on December 19 - at the height of Christmas shopping.

"The roads may have been perfect, but there was no thought given to those without a car, no thought given to the elderly or people who have to shop every day.

"Old folk were getting off of their bus and then couldn't even cross the street. And there were innumberable broken limb incidents reported at Crosshouse Hospital."

Cllr. Brown dismissed the council's claim that they couldn't get labour, telling us: "They said there was difficulty getting labour.

"That is nonsense. The usual agreement is that the council contact groundsmen. However, it is my information that they weren't contacted.

"They would have been glad of the overtime coming up to Christmas and even afterwards. There isn't even a need to have people on standby as the council have the contact details for all the workers. However, it wasn't until January 5 that the paths began to be cleared."

The Irvine member highlighted the Bridgegate - which was covered in ice for weeks until being gritted after the New Year.

"The Bridgegate is accessible by emergency vehicles and this was an emergency. It would have taken five minutes to carry out. Bridgegate and the Cross have the highest footfall in North Ayrshire."

Cllr Brown added that he believed there was no excuse for the lack of clearing over Christmas.

"There would have been no problems if it had been tackled immediately," he said.

On Thursday he will ask a meeting of North Ayrshire Council to carry out a review of contingency planning to allow for priority clearing in areas of high pedestrian footfall in the future.