...for the want of some grit

As some of you might be aware, Derbyshire County Council recently changing its gritting policy and categorised each of the county roads using three levels of importance. Sheldon’s only road, and all the access roads to the village, were classified as ‘secondary’ which means that we are only gritted once during the daytime. On Monday 5th December 2011 we had out first snow, a paltry amount by 2010 standards, but as the gritter didn’t arrive into the village until 10h10 (although no grit was seen to be laid) many of our residents who commute to work, and who don’t own a 4×4, were unable to travel to work; the gritting service on Tuesday wasn’t much better.

The village has now contacted Derbyshire County Council, and we understand that several residents have also contacted our MP, to express our concerns. We strongly believe that as the only access to our village is via Kirkdale (from the A6) or Flagg Lane (towards the A515), both of which are also ‘secondary’ routes, we are severely disadvantaged by this new policy. Both Kirkdale and Flagg Lane are single-track roads, with portions of steep gradient, making them impassable under the slightest snowfall.

We urge Derbyshire County Council to reconsider the classification of the roads in, and around, our village.