CALLS have been made for East Lancashire’s minor roads and pavements to be gritted more.

While the main thoroughfares have been gritted by council and Highways Agency crews, councillors said they had been inundated by complaints from people living in side streets that had been turned into “ice rinks”.

And hospital bosses said there had been a jump in the number of patients checking into A&E with broken wrists, hips and legs as people took tumbles in the icy conditions.

But bosses, who admitted they might reduce the snow maintenance in future years, insisted they simply did not have the budget to cover every street, and warned pedestrians and motorists to take care with more snow expected.

The poor weather has also led to a surge of calls to council helplines as key services are hit.

In Blackburn and Darwen, there were complaints that hard-to-reach areas had been missed out.

Labour leader Kate Hollern said it had taken a colleague two hours to drive from Darwen to Blackburn.

She added: “Darwen town centre has just ground to a halt. It’s not as if we didn’t know it was coming. I don’t know what the reason was, but gritting has been really bad this time.”

And Bastwell councillor Iftakhar Hussain said Whalley Street in Blackburn was “chaos”. He added: “Cars are sliding everywhere and rolling back down the street. It’s like an ice rink.

“No gritting has been done on the side streets. There’s been about 10 crashes on Calder Street alone.

“There aren’t enough salt bins.”

Council bosses said it wasn’t possible for all residential streets to be reached.

In Blackburn with Darwen, four or five gritters take four hours to cover the 165 miles of roads to be gritted across the borough. Gritting takes place on eight routes around the borough, and teams of hand gritters cover the town centres and some out-of-town locations. The council holds over 2,000 tonnes of salt and maintains 350 salt bins.

At Lancashire County Council, Lib Dem councillors have called for an “urgent and immediate review” into the service, which he said needed more staff and salt bins to work properly. Hyndburn Council leader Peter Britcliffe said: “The main roads are fine, but the side streets are absolutely treacherous”.

Ribble Valley South West County Coun Chris Holtom said: “They were gritting the main roads very early, but some of the country roads have been causing a lot of discontent.”

Liberal Democrat councillors have launched a campaign over Lancashire County Council’s gritting service, which they have branded “inadequate”.

Group leader and Pendle councillor David Whipp called for an “urgent and immediate review” into the service, which he said needed more staff and salt bins to work properly.

In Colne, ward councillor Graham Roach said residents had been forced to use ropes to cordon off Phillips Lane, which he said was “like a ski run”.

County council bosses sometimes make changes to which roads are gritted, but Coun Tomlinson insisted the total usage had not been reduced.

Burnley Council leader Gordon Birtwistle said: “There does not seem to be a problem on the main routes, but the pavements and some of the side roads haven’t been done.

“You never can do enough, but I have to accept that the main roads have priority”.

Labour county councillor Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for sustainable development, paid tribute to the gritting crews and said the ‘primary network’ of roads had been treated and was usable by yesterday.

He said: “With the best will in the world, we have got to concentrate on the busy roads.

“Quite frankly there are not enough hours in the day, or manpower available to do every road, and we do not do pavements as a matter of course”.

Coun Tomlinson insisted the £4million budget for road gritting had not been cut back — but said this might be reduced next year because it has not been spent in nine of the past 10 years.

John Howles, acting matron for the emergency department at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We have seen a short increase in the numbers of broken wrists, hips and legs, mainly in our Urgent Care Centres but we have treated each and every one and it has not caused too much pressure on the system.”