Plan for Shropshire snow wardens drifts off agenda

Last year Shropshire Council's cabinet agreed to look into the cost of setting up the volunteer-led scheme in preparation for the next time the county is hit by bad weather.

Some residents, particularly the elderly, were left housebound when the Beast from the East hit in February.

And businesses in Shrewsbury town centre said trade was hit because the public did not feel safe walking along the un-gritted paths.

In response, a cross party motion was put forward by Councillors Andy Boddington and Julian Dean calling for chief executive Clive Wright to investigate setting up a snow warden project.

Empower

But Councillor Boddington said there had been "snow progress", despite the motion being passed last May.

And with the possibility of snow looming, he is frustrated that little headway has been made.

He said: "The swingeing cuts to the council’s highways budgets means that it has no hope of clearing most pavements and has never cleared most local pavements anyway. We need to empower volunteers to clear and grit short stretches of pavement."

Councillor Boddington said he was told by the local authority that the scheme will not be up and running this year because a new highways contractor has been appointed and there is an usually high number of potholes to be fixed due to the harsh winter.

"There is no law preventing you from clearing and gritting public pavements," he added.

"You are very unlikely to be sued if someone slips because pedestrians have a duty of care to themselves when walking on snow and ice. However, many people still don’t feel empowered to grit or clear pavements.

"That was the idea behind the snow warden scheme, proposed by Councillor Julian Dean and myself. Volunteers would be insured, trained, provided with a hi viz vest, a shovel and grit. But it seems we will have to wait another year before we get a scheme that has been in place in Telford and Wrekin for years."

The initiative in Telford and Wrekin was launched by the council in 2012 and has become a huge success.

The volunteers work alongside council contractors who are responsible for gritting 400km of roads, including bus routes and access roads for emergency services, schools, industrial estates and villages.