'Inflexible' Roads Service claim

The guidelines state that only roads carrying an average 1,500 vehicles a day – or 1,000 in hilly areas – are routinely gritted.

Cllr Wilson said he wrote to suggest “modest” additions to the gritting schedule in his electoral area.

“These suggestions were specifically to ensure that rural primary schools such as Toreagh and Lower Ballyboley are linked to a salted route. However, Roads Service have not taken up any of my suggestions.”

He added: “Judging from the calls I have received from members of the public, many people are under the false impression that the council has responsibility for the roads and the gritting schedule.

“Those who have got through to the nearest Roads Service office (in Ballymena) have been singularly unimpressed by the attitude of the staff there. Like me, they have found the response of Roads Service to be bureaucratic, inflexible and largely unsympathetic.”