THE comments (Letters, January 14) of Darwen readers David Ainsworth and Chris Royle regarding the apparent lack of gritting last Tuesday morning and complaining about the council are way off the mark.

In fact, on late Monday night all routes were fully gritted. The gritters also started work at 5am on Tuesday morning and again all routes were gritted.

The council has received several telephone calls praising the hard work of the gritting crews.

The main reason why the A666 in Darwen was congested was that a lorry became stuck at Grimshaw Street/Bolton Road and another accident took place at Hardman Way/Bolton Road.

This, together with the heavy snowfall (five inches between 5am and 7am) and roadworks carried out by North West Water combined to cause the severe delays. Hardly the fault of the council.

Mr Royle also asks what council tax payers pay for. Well, if he looks at the leaflet sent with his bill, he will find in detail exactly what the money is spent on.

It seems to me that some people blame 'the council' for everything. No doubt, the flu epidemic, England's failure to win the Ashes and global warming are all the fault of 'the council.'

COUNCILLOR DAVE SMITH, chairman, direct services committee, Blackburn with Darwen Council, Avondale Road, Darwen.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.