Picturesque snow but treacherous on the roads

Snow causes difficult driving conditions at Sudden junction at 7.00am

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Residents across the borough woke to picturesque scenes this morning as the first snow of winter fell. However, the snow caused havoc on the roads after appearing to catch the Highways Department on the hop and driving, even on main roads, has been treacherous throughout the day - the M62 west bound at Middleton was closed following an accident and a car skidded and hit a house on Grimshaw Lane.

One angry local man, who endured a difficult journey to university, posting on the Rochdale Online forum, said: "No gritting or indeed gritters on the roads. Let's hear the excuses from the council for this one. It is an absolute and utter disgrace and I expect them to be reducing council tax payments this year to account for a service we are not receiving.

"Actually, there is no excuse, it is incompetence and mismanagement on a grand scale when something as basic as a gritting service is not carried out.

"I wouldn't mind, but this was not a surprise, the met office distributed the relevant information to the authorities and warned of a need for gritting."

See the debate on the RO Forum:

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/forum-archive/topic.asp