Brigade weather concerns

DUP councillor Joe Miller said: "I have very close conections with this area and I know that there is a large concentration of elderly and sick people and they are badly affected (by the weather]. I have spoken to the Roads Service numerous times. They salted the area once but they don't normally grit the road as it does not meet the criteria.

"I am concerned with the Brigade and the Clement Street areas as it is very slippy and the elderly and sick are prisoners in their own homes.

"It is the Road Service's responsibility to do more but they are being pulled in 100 directions.

"These areas should be gritted more regularly. I would want to see more done and see more help given to these areas."

A Roads Service spokesperson said: "Roads Service salts main roads carrying more than 1,500 vehicles per day, as well as other busy routes with special difficulties (e.g. steep hills) that carry over 1,000 vehicles per day. In applying the criteria, service buses and school buses get a high weighting – a 40 seater bus is counted as 40 vehicles. Small settlements of more than 100 dwellings each have a salted link via the shortest route to the salted network, and consideration is given to placing grit piles or salt boxes at hills, bends or junctions on roads that are not gritted. In total, an operation on this scale of will cost around 5m over the winter.

"Roads Service provides salt boxes and grit piles at strategic locations (approximately 3,500 salt boxes and 39,000 grit piles at present), which can be used by the general public on a self help basis to help prevent the formation of snow and ice on pavements and roads. Roads Service asks people to refrain from removing salt from salt bins in bulk.

"The salt in the salt bins should be left for use by the community for the roads and streets for which it is intended.

"A grit box will be approved based on an assessment which will take traffic volumes, type of traffic, proximity to schools/hospital/old people's home etc, geometry of road including gradient of the street into consideration and the availability of alternative route, etc. Any person who believes they meet the criteria for getting a salt box, can contact their local Roads Service Section Office who will send them an application form."

Meanwhile more disruption has continued across the county. At the beginning of this week around 80 primary and secondary schools were closed across county Londonderry Derry City Airport was temporarily closed on Monday but reopened again with delays and cancellations.