A nursery boss who has campaigned to get a hazardous road added to a gritting route has called the installation of a gritting bin as a ‘token gesture’.
Nicky Gilkes, director of Blossoms Childcare in West Raynham has been calling on Norfolk County Council to add Station Road - between Raynham and East Rudham - to its gritting route. A single grit bin has been added to The Kiptons, by the West Raynham estate on February 3.
Mr Gilkes claims there have been 19 incidents on the road in four years, and fears young children and his staff could be injured or killed.
Norfolk County Councillor Tom FitzPatrick, along with Michael Chenery, both requested the road be added to the route, and offered to use some of their local member highways budgets to meet additional costs but their pleas were turned down.
The Highways Agency plans to look at the location again when it carries out its annual assessment in the summer.
While the gritting bin has been praised as a welcome addition, Mr Gilkes was hoping for more.
“We appreciate Mr FitzPatrick for pushing to have one bin added, but what about the rest of the route?” he said.
“I want to speak to someone and have a proper conversation about what the solutions could be for us.
“One (bin) is a token gesture, it is not a solution to this.”
Mr FitzPatrick added: “Given the number of roads in Norfolk it is not possible to grit them all and, although an access is maintained to communities where possible, it may not be the most direct to a main road.”
“I was very pleased that Highways were able to quickly install a grit bin at the entrance to the Kiptons to allow local spreading during frost.”
“I will continue to champion having this route added and hope to see it included for next year.”
Karl Rands, Norfolk County Council’s Highways Services Manager, said: “We do appreciate the concerns at this location.
"When this route was reviewed last year, it was not possible to add what would have been an additional four miles to the gritting schedule as it did not meet the assessment criteria at that time, however we will be looking again at this location when we carry out our annual assessment of gritting routes this summer.”
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