Despite warnings from Kedington's gritting contractor that the villages supply of grit was running out Kedington has been out of road salt since before Christmas.Although roads in Kedington that are lucky enough to be on bus routes are gritted by Suffolk Highways Department gritting lorries all other roads are gritted by a gritting trailer towed around the village by car on behalf of Kedington Parish Council. The grit is delivered to the Kedington's road salt bunker by the county for the use of the parish at the beginning of the winter. This must be ordered by the Parish Council for delivery to take place. However it should be noted that when the Parish council ordered this winters supply back in late October it was not until a three days before December's first snow falls that it arrived. Also last winter Kedington was given several additional piles of grit around the village to cope with Icy weather. This winter such piles were not seen until yesterday evening (Monday) after Kedington has been through nearly three weeks of snow and ice. These piles were also much reduced from the size they were last year and are not only insufficient for gritting the roads but were intended for use on pavements.
Kedington's road salt bunker ran out before Christmas. At that time a phone call and an e-mail were put through to the village clerk. Unfortunately by this time she had already left for her annual Christmas break so the call and Email were not seen until the Tuesday after Christmas. We can report that this system has now been altered and the village Gritter has been given the clerks mobile number in case of emergency. On receiving the message Kedington's parish clerk did put through a call on the Tuesday she returned between Christmas and New year requesting a fresh supply of Grit from Suffolk County Council. A week later and still the Village salt bunker has received no delivery despite a weekend when sheets of ice covered sections of many roads across the village. The Parish Clerk made more representations to Suffolk County Highways Department on Monday but although the Council have left the afore mentioned small piles of grit as of 3:30pm on today (Tuesday) Kedington's salt bunker was still empty.
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