Grit plea rejected

A REQUEST to extend the gritting area in Sonning Common has been denied by the highways authority.

The parish council had asked for gritters to be sent down Grove Road, Lea Road and Westleigh Drive but this was turned down by Oxfordshire County Council.

Parish clerk Sara Underwood said that she made the request because “two steep hills” on a school route had caused a hazard when water froze on the road in cold temperatures.

She said: “One particular morning, when it was really bad, we had three cars crash at one end and they ended up in a hedge.”

Speaking at a meeting of the parish council last week, county councillor David Bartholomew said that the gritting schedule is “pretty fixed” but that the parish council could apply for a salt bin in the area.

He said: “They do have quite strict criteria and there’s a limit to the number of roads that they can grit.

“If you felt very, very strongly about it you could try and press the issue but I’m not sure that it would get anywhere.”