News

Kent County Council (KCC) has strongly denied charges that it failed to grit roads in Shepway, Dover and Thanet during the recent heavy snowfalls.

In a statement from KCC Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste Nick Chard, he wrote: “We spread 500 tonnes of grit on the primary and secondary salting routes in Thanet, Dover and Shepway when the eastern part of the county was hit by snow overnight between Wednesday and Thursday last week. The action started on Wednesday afternoon and the roads were gritted again in the early hours of the morning.

“During the night Kent Highway Services crews also ploughed roads where snow began to lay – and they continued ploughing affected roads throughout Thursday.

“We have a well-planned winter service programme that relies on detailed weather forecasts. Anyone looking at what happened should take into account that the snow was highly localised and in some places was twice as much as the Met Office predicted.

“All our local crews worked tirelessly to tackle this unprecedented volume of snow – and Kent Highways Services also diverted gritters, snowploughs and crews to the eastern region from parts of the county that were not so badly hit.

“On Thursday we had seven gritting crews dedicated to ploughing primary routes in Shepway alone. They were supported by a further six crews that salted the primary routes by hand.

“We also worked very closely with our district and borough partners to tackle priority footpaths, such as those around hospitals and doctors’ surgeries. In Thanet, for example, parks staff were redeployed to help clear paths.

"It is simply incorrect to say that Kent Highways Services did not grit the roads in Thanet, Dover and Shepway.”

© Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2010