DUNGANNON Borough Council and the town's traders are set for a showdown over who is responsible for the removal of snow and ice from pavements during adverse Winter weather, as experienced in the run-up to Christmas past.

According to Dungannon Council it should be traders and not Councils who should foot the bill!

Members at last night's monthly Council meeting heard that at a meeting of the Council's Strategic Service Delivery Committee, the Council's Acting Chief Executive told the meeting that SOLACE still had concerns regarding Councils taking on the role of removing snow and ice from pavements during inclement weather and said that NILGA was still discussing the matter.

Councillors also expressed concern with regard to the Council taking on this role and referred to difficulties with indemnity.

The Council's Acting Chief Executive suggested that the Council write to the Roads Minister proposing that business and property owners take on liability for snow and ice removal and went on to suggest that legislation be introduced which would put the onus on traders and property owners to clean-up snow and ice outside their properties.
The Committee recommended that the Council write to the Minister proposing that business and property owners take liability for snow and ice removal from footpaths and that legislation relating to the same be brought into operation.

Dungannon, along with the rest of the Province, experienced its worst weather for many years in the run-up to Christmas last when temperatures plummeted to as low as -16

The sub-zero temperatures meant footpaths in Dungannon were impassible due to snow and ice and there were heated exchanges between local traders, the Council and Department for Rural Development Roads Service over who was responsible for clearing them.

The DRD said it was responsible for clearing snow and ice off roads but was not responsible for footpaths.

Dungannon Borough Council said it was not responsible for footpath gritting.

The Council's Acting Chief Executive, Mr Alan Burke, told the Courier just before Christmas that the authority with responsibility for the road network and infrastructure, DRD Roads Service, had the power to deal with the issue but said it had a policy of not doing so. He said Councils did not have the power to do the work.

While the Council and DRD argued over who was responsible, traders in Dungannon claimed their trade was suffering as people were not coming out to do their shopping due to the state of the footpaths.

As a result, hard-hit traders in the town took matters into their own hands and treated pavements with sand and salt themselves.Their actions were afterwards praised by Dungannon Council.

However, the Council's latest decision to put the onus on traders for the removal of snow and ice from footpaths will now go down well with Dungannon businesspeople.

One irate trader told the Courier: "Dungannon Council and DRD should be ashamed of themselves. Last Christmas they could not agree among themselves as to who was responsible . Now they are attempting to wash their hands of the problem by placing it on the laps of traders and property owners.

"It makes you wonder why we are paying rates and to be honest, traders will simply not stand for it!"

Should the Minister agree with the Council's recommendation and introduce legislation for traders to remove snow and ice from footpaths, it will have repercussions for not only Dungannon traders, but traders in other towns and villages throughout the Province.

Source: Tyrone Courier
Date: Wednesday 6th July 2011