Icy pavements (c) of Basher Eyre
Here is a letter I recently wrote to the Witney Gazette:
Sir, Almost exactly two years ago, the leader of Oxfordshire County Council announced in your pages (Gazette Letters, January 5, 2010) his solution to the problem of icy pavements in Witney:
“If every householder and every shopkeeper took some salt and a shovel and cleared the area of pavement in front of their home or shop, we might have regained some of the spirit that has kept this island free for 1,000 years.”
The problem has not been solved this winter. Witney’s pavements are more dangerous than ever. Oxfordshire County Council is not actually responsible for keeping this island free for 1,000 years; it is responsible for keeping Witney’s pavements clear of ice for the winter. The good folk of Witney have suffered enough from this council’s bizarre approach to transport in the town. What the council spent on its ill-advised Cogges Link Road proposal would have kept Witney’s pavements free from ice for at least 1,000 years.
Stuartmacdonald 