DO ME a favour , said I to the chap at North Somerset council's, streets and open spaces, when he told me they couldn't give us any bins of salt and grit, in case someone hurts themselves on a grit bin and sues the council .

'DO ME a favour', said I to the chap at North Somerset council's, streets and open spaces, when he told me they couldn't give us any bins of salt and grit, 'in case someone hurts themselves on a grit bin and sues the council'.

'But what if someone skids on the ice and hurts themselves or others, surely it's a safety issue and you have a duty of care to your parishioners,'? I said.

That was before Christmas during the first lot of freezing weather. The other excuses he gave me was that 'even though we on the camp (RAF Locking) pay the full council tax, we were not entitled to any salt or grit because the roads were private, or we should get the maintenance company to grit - we asked them, they don't. I said well it looks like you are charging us for the grit, but supplying it to others in the area, 'what a con', I said, but he didn't agree or deny the facts given to him.

I see now that this Tory council is going to spend a million pounds on a discotheque, but can't give us a couple of bins of grit - what's going on?

Anyway, other than in despair and joining the Communist Party, I spoke to a very nice lady at the South West Regional Development Agency (SWERDA) and asked her for some grit, and she has recently supplied some, but without anything to spread it with efficiently i.e. wheelbarrows. Do you reckon the chap at 'streets and open spaces' may lend us the wheelbarrows when he's finished using them for demolishing the discotheque? I bet he will say 'do me a favour'.

COUNCILLOR MALCOLM CHALK

Locking Parish Council

Oxford Square, Locking