Should Wimborne Pavements Be Gritted During The Winter?

The Living Streets charity is calling for councils across the country to keep pavements, as well as roads, well gritted and cleared of snow, but should the pavements of Wimborne be gritted during the cold weather as a matter of course?

Certainly the priority should always be gritting the roads to make them safe for travellers and transport and it could be argued that spending time gritting pavements would distract from that, as well as significantly reduce the grit stocks. When the gritters grit the roads some of the grit is sprayed on to the pavements clearing some parts, but it most cases it obviously isn't enough to keep them 100% clear. Would grit bins strategically placed near schools and shops be the answer?

There were 16,000 snow and ice related injuries treated by hospitals during the winter of 2009-2010, with a total cost of around £42million for the same period the previous year, and gritting the pavements would drastically reduce that number. Grit bins would certainly help in that reduction, but would take a chunk out of local councils' already tight budgets and others services could suffer if this was implemented.

There are already some grit bins around such as the one on Jessopp Road in Colehill, which is placed at the bottom of a steep hill so that local residents can grit the road and path should it become particularly treacherous. It's clear these self-service bins work so couldn't local councils dig a little deeper and provide a few more?