Leighton Buzzard volunteers step in to tackle treacherous icy pavements, but call for better planning over wintry hazards

That’s the view of Leighton-Linslade and Central Bedfordshire Independent councillor Victoria Harvey who says it was a “awful” that the pavements were left “unsafe” when she led a team of volunteers and other local town councillors recently to grit the area when the pavements were slippy.

Cllr Harvey said: “Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) brought half a tonne of grit and Cllr [Tony] Morris, myself, Ian Dillamore, Chris Stevenson and several other local residents gritted the High Street as we didn’t want people falling over. This was one-off group action because nothing was happening.”

Cllr Harvey says she is working with Cllrs Brian Spurr, Gordon Perham and Tony Morris to come up with a future solution and has prepared a motion for the next meeting of Leighton-Linslade Town Council’s Market Sub Committee this Thursday.

Part of that motion being proposed says the town council “should actively engage with Central Bedfordshire Council both highways and waste teams to find a partnership approach to the town centre in times of deep frost and snow that would involve local volunteers and community members. It should also consider looking at the role of the Town Centre Ranger and purchasing appropriate equipment such as hand gritters.”

A spokesperson for Leighton-Linslade Town Council said: “The town council has a winter salt/gritting policy which it adopted in 2014. It will undertake limited gritting of pathways and roadways for which it is responsible.

“The town council’s priority and responsibility is to Vandyke and Old Linslade cemeteries when booked funerals are to take place. Thereafter, and subject to colleagues and resources being available, the town council will endeavour to grit the pathways and roadways within the curtilage of the pavilion buildings it owns at Pages Park, Linslade Memorial Pavilion and Astral Park only.

“As the highways authority, Central Bedfordshire Council has responsibility for the gritting of the public highways and public footpaths. How the highways authority prioritises its gritting routes is not within the town council’s gift and a matter to be taken up directly with them.”

The LBO understands that Central Bedfordshire Council as the highway authority would hold the statutory duty for ensuring safe passage for highway users but is under no obligation to treat the footways and market area, and takes a risk based approach.

A spokesman for Central Bedfordshire Council said: “Like all local authorities, we prioritise gritting on a risk basis so we focus on roads and particularly those that carry the highest volumes of traffic, have the greatest risk of accidents, or are key access routes.

“In total, just under half of the roads in Central Bedfordshire are gritted every time we carry out a gritting run. These include all A and B roads and some smaller road such as busy commuter routes, roads leading to hospitals or schools, or those that are critical to the emergency services.

“We are doing everything we can to support Leighton Buzzard market area. We provide all town and parish councils with large bags of salt to use on their town centres and pavements. We have also provided additional salt to a volunteer group in Leighton Buzzard to grit the market area on market days.”