Getting a new grit bin set to become easier for residents

There are almost 650 requests for new grit bins from Rochdale residents anxious to keep their streets safe when icy weather strikes.

The bins are in such high demand people sometimes resort to stealing them to ensure their roads and footways remain passable councillors say.

It may seem like strange timing with winter drawing to an end but getting a new grit bin could be about to get easier for the borough’s residents.

Rochdale Council bosses will currently only put in new bins to serve steep public roads which salt-spreading lorries either don’t treat on their rounds or can’t get to.

They will not grant a request for an extra bin if there is another one within 200 metres of it.

However, cabinet chiefs are expected to relax the rules around them when they meet tonight (Monday, March 18).

This will mean that the borough’s four township committees – Heywood, Middleton, Rochdale and the Pennines – will be able to put them in areas that don’t meet the current ‘winter service’ criteria if councillors believe they are needed.

Councillor Neil Emmott said: “This proposal is for a common sense change to a council policy that will allow our councillors – who know their local communities better than anyone else – to use their ward funds to get grit bins installed in places where residents think they are really needed.”

Councillor Donna Williams, chair of Middleton Township Committee, said she would ‘absolutely welcome’ the extra flexibility the proposed change to the council’s winter service policy would bring.

She said: “If ward councillors are saying there’s a need for one I would support them. Ward councillors know their areas and the people who live there, so I would welcome this.”

Councillor Williams added that some residents had even resorted to stealing bins from other places if the council has not supplied them with one.

She said: “Over the years grit bins have been stolen. I do know they are in high demand, I don’t know what decision cabinet will make, but I would absolutely support residents requesting grit bins and then being able to have them.”

Each grit bin costs just over £1,000 to buy, install and service – which includes 26 refills.

It would be down to each township committee to decide whether to use its funds for those requested by residents where the criteria is not met.

A report set to go before the cabinet tonight (Monday 18 March) asks members to approve the changes.

It states: “This discretion will allow grit bins to be located on a larger part of the network which will enable more residents to self-help in the event of severe winter weather.”

Council chiefs say that, as extra grit bins are paid for through township funds, there will be ‘no immediate impact’ on the highways winter service revenue budget.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter