Grit Bin Fiasco

8.00.00am GMT Sat 13th Feb 2010

“Failing to refill grit bins, yet claiming it was doing so, makes residents lose confidence in the County Council.”

Throughout Surrey there was a failure to fill and top-up grit bins during the periods of heavy snow in December and January resulting in many justified complaints from residents. Just how chaotic the situation was has been revealed following questions from County Cllr Stephen Cooksey.

In early January the County press office issued a series of statements indicating clearly that "The Council's 1,400 salt bins will continue to be filled", which seemed something of an exaggeration to Councillors on the ground, especially when the East Area Highways Office responding to a question said "I regret (the statement) is not correct …. we do not have resources to achieve this". In fact during the week of 11 January only 75 bins were refilled in the West of the County and none at all in the East.

Cllr Cooksey said "It is bad enough that the County Council was unable to refill grit bins thereby causing huge difficulties for people, but at the same time to claim publicly that it was doing so can only further undermine what little confidence people might still have in the Conservative administration".