Letter: Last year we experienced a spell of severe weather and the gritting was stretched to the limit in Shropshire.

After an outcry and petitions in my area (Chirbury and Worthen) we were offered a review of the gritting routes and the Tory cabinet refused to reinstate the £500,000 severe weather fund. The review added only a little to the routes.

What have we seen this year? Routes gritted by vehicles which hardly appear to be spreading any grit, new grit bins being kept to a minimum because of lack of money and empty grit bins unable to be refilled for another week.

We are a county of hilly lanes with more and more elderly people living in isolated rural areas often with carers having to call once, twice or three times a day.

What does the 80-year-old lady do when the carer cannot come to help with the husband with dementia or the 90-year-old whose husband has a terminal illness?

In these two cases emergency gritting was put in by local staff. The point is that they cannot do the job they want to do because the funding is just not there.

I watched in Bridgnorth last week as older people tried to cross an icy road to get their pensions at a sub post office. Within just 30 minutes an ambulance had to be called. It was the same in Ludlow.

One cabinet member says the pavements are the responsibility of the shop keeper. I ask again that the new unitary council to be more joined up and stop looking at Highways as the easy touch to save money.

Let’s be more joined up, share responsibility and make rural lives safer. If next year we have a mild winter then we all save.

Councillor Heather Kidd

Chirbury and Worthen