A different approach to Snow and Ice
“BLACK ice is causing rush-hour chaos across South Lakeland this morning.”
“Wary motorists were seen turning their vehicles around and pedestrians trying to navigate their way along town centre footpaths.”
“MP Tim Farron said on Facebook: "The lack of gritting on paths has made the South Lakes an ice-rink. I will again press the county council to act to grit local roads and paths. It has made it impossible to get anywhere!"”
A terrible situation for most. Especially those, such as myself, that have disabilities. But actually, I found Cumbria County Council's response pretty good considering the freak conditions. My journey from Troutbeck to the middle of Windermere, using lanes, main roads and finally the car park at 6.30am went without a hitch. The “Priority 1” roads had good coverage and the County Council is right to prioritise routes, the problem was the residential areas and most footpaths. But instead of just moaning about it in the press I would like to put forward a constructive solution.
Unfortunately the socialism we have lived under for quite some time dictates that the state, in this case Cumbria County Council, will provide for all. We pay our taxes, the State provides. But even after 13 years of Labour government and now Mr Farron's “Liberal Socialism” we have found that the Council simply cannot be Father Christmas and be everywhere at once. It's so easy to play the blame game.
I would like to now point out that on Thursday Troutbeck had, arguably, the best roads in the South Lakes. Why? Well, historically, Cumbria County Council refused to grit the village. But where the state failed, the community rallied. Troutbeck now has a snowplough and gritter, funded by grants and villagers donations. We get an excellent service from a local farmer who is given contract rates from Cumbria County Council to clear most of our roads and lanes.
It is disappointing then, that Windermere and Kendal, with a significantly larger populations, gets a far inferior service. For instance, I can walk, with the aid of my walking stick, to the Post Office in Troutbeck from my home and back without a single sighting of ice. But if I tried to walk from a residential home in Windermere to the nearest bus stop or along the recently adopted road to the Lakes School I would be flat on my back.
There is something wrong with that.
I would like to work with Cumbria County Council and South Lakeland District Council to implement my ideas for a better service.
We need a localised service outside of Priority 1 and 2 roads using Troutbeck as the model. County Council could still have control of when, where and what was done, the difference would be that it actually got done and straight away. Local farmers with tractors are an easy enough solution. There will be a number of farmers that we could support to do this extra work.
For footpaths we need to empower local communities and individuals to react. South Lakeland District Council need to work with the local Parish and Town Councils to find someone on each street that would be willing to put a little grit out without fear of prosecution. This rule of liability MUST be changed if we want communities to be active in working for themselves or we allow these people to grit under the mandate of local authorities.
Because I suspect that not everyone in South Lakeland subscribes to Liberal Socialism, I think there are hard working, roll your sleeves up people in our communities that just want to get on and get the job done for the benefit of all. All we need is a push in the right direction.
-Conservative Councillor Ben Berry
Windermere, Applethwaite and Troutbeck