By Bill Heaney
Are West Dunbartonshire’s councIllors and officials really so hubristic, stuck up and full of their own importance that they think they can turn their backs on the people who vote them in and pay their wages?
It certainly seems that way from their performance in regard to making the streets and pavements of this community safe for the public to walk and drive on.
You would have had to be on the moon not to have noticed that people here – especially old people and their families – were worried about about our vulnerable elderly slipping and falling on ice during bad weather.
And the weather was the worst it has been so far overnight on Thursday when snow covered Ben Lomond, the Auchencarroch Hills, the Long Crags and the Old Kilpatrick Hills, and the mercury plunged well below freezing.
This was bad news not just for old folk, but for the heartless politicians who thoughtlessly abolished the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. People will think long and hard before ever voting for them again.
And for them the signs are it will get worse since one of the budget cuts planned for next years involves REDUCING the number of gritting lorries and, presumably, the operatives who drive them.
Despite the fact that there were more than 3,000 words of criticism on just one social media outlet, their spin doctors – do they have any political advisers at all in Church Street? – came up with a bland, mealy-mouthed explanation which, were it not such a serious matter, would be laughable.
There were many questions left unanswered.
The Council wrote: “Our gritting teams were out from 6pm yesterday treating priority routes 1 & 2 and were then on patrol throughout the night.”
The unanswered questions: How many gritters were there? How many operatives were there? How many routes did they cover? How many pavements, footpaths and walking areas? How much grit did they use?
Ex-councillor George Marshall Black from Milton was angry. “As usual your feckless gritter driver reversed into Lennox Road Milton then did a vanishing act that would not have disgraced Houdini, leaving the steepest and iciest part of this road G822TL. UNTREATED. Pedestrians are sliding about as I post this.”
WDC = We Don’t Care!!!“Caroline Gayle Hunter described the council explanation as “patronising”. She said: “I think instead of a patronising post on how icy weather works, someone needs to go back on their nitty nae mcgritty machine again and grit the roads. You have alot of complaints here WDC. It’s leaving able people, never mind disabled people, frightened … “
Maria Kane responded: “Have to laugh. They claim to have gritted main roads, but how are you meant to get to them when your street is an ice rink?”
Yvonne Sartain Kane observed “four Council workers are out with a van full of grit and a shovel each to grit the whole area. Absolutely shocking.”
Lucillia Weir added: “The gritting team urgently needed ‘up this hill’ the bridge at shops a sheet of ice people falling everywhere!”
Frankie Logan pleaded: “Could you put out more gritting boxes like at the bottom of Braes Avenue [Clydebank] and let folk know where they are placed ?”
John Mcfarlane added: “Silverton area is a disgrace pavements and roads. West Dunbartonshire Council quite happy to take our taxes. Get it sorted.”
And Cathryn Murray reported: “The road from Balloch to Gartocharn on the evening of 1st January was treacherous. Had not been gritted. Honestly, frightening driving conditions. Unfortunately someone ended up in a field after hitting black ice.”
Kirsty Douglas added: “You can’t tell me you gritted any part of A811 Gartocharn road on Wednesday night. For an A road it was absolutely lethal. There’s two fences into two fields down, one I know for a fact was a car in the field due to ice.”
Tracey McCormick suggested: “If we had more and fresh filled grit bins we could do our paths.”
Dawn Richardson talked about “a death trap” — “West Dunbartonshire Council can Highdykes hill please get gritted ? It’s a death trap, a car has already lost control and slid off the road onto a pavement on the way out the street this morning.
Martin Kerr claimed: “Not a single path or road was gritted deffo not in Bonhill/Old Bonhill.”
Stevie Mcconnachie gritted his teeth: “When are we going to get the grit bin I’ve been asked Dfor, it’s only been four years, Inler Drive is like an ice rink.”
Francesca Drummond said: “The pavements are an utter disgrace this morning. As for my own road and pavements, they’ve never been done once in the 18 years I’ve stayed here apart from when we do them ourselves 
“
Shelm Ellycon asked: “So how do they manage in Canada, America and other countries, they never get like this? They always seem to cope and the snow/ice is much more extreme there.”
Sandra Macdonald commented: “The council must be on rations. When the gritter that came up my street it was hardly spreading and as I was just coming out of my car he came up the street and could hardly hear or see the grit.”
Amber Woolfries maintained: “Tontine is never touched! The whole place is like an ice rink! No grit bins near either!”
Fiona McLeod reported: “Paths along Back Street Renton are a disgrace. Can’t walk on them. Absolutely ridiculous for carers to get in and out of clients who are walkers and also no grit in bin at Back Street.”
Lauren McLeod said: “The pavements are not gritted. Just had to get an ambulance for an elderly man who slipped and smashed his face on the pavement across from Vale Academy.”
The local authority have a legal obligation to keep roads safe and grit during icy weather.
They have a well developed protocol for dealing with road gritting whereby in winter months senior staff are paid overtime to watch the weather temperatures so that the button can be pressed to get the gritting teams out when there is a temperature drop.
Moreover, depending on the weather conditions, there is a protocol that specifies what roads have to be prioritised first before moving on to other routes. The council are therefore fully cognisant of the risk to life and limb through dangerous road.
Indeed, not so many years ago there was a high profile death of a police officer driving to an early shift on a section of the M8 that the authority had failed to grit. And so against this background why were West Dunbartonshire Council over many many days unable or unwilling to mobilize the gritting fleet.
Clearly they have the resources but chose not to deploy them. It is as simple as that. This is not a failure but a deliberate act.
It seems that a very much similar situation appertains with regard to the refuse collection with household being left high and dry.
So what should people do. The non gritting of roads is a potentially life threatening situation. The society for the prevention of accidents, and indeed road engineers work on the basis of the cost of a fatality to society and the economy at £1.8 million pounds. Indeed that figure is calculated in to cost benefit scenarios when consideration is being given to upgrade an unsafe bit of road. Lower figures are used for less serious accidents.
The purpose however is to provide a quantitative basis for assessment of the benefit of minimising risk. Now whilst this analysis extends to more than gritting of roads and considerations as to things like would a revised junction layout reduce accidents, or would road marking upgrades reduce accidents and much more, it’s an interesting concept when an authority fails to properly consider or more accurately wilfully disregard safety and or fail to do what they have legal obligation to do.
Sadly, indeed appallingly this authority are in that league and as such they are open to legal action, if not already on many fronts for their failures.