A councillor today called for a "joined up" approach to making icy pavements safe after she slipped outside a health centre.
On Thursday, Colchester councillor Julie Young offered to pick up a prescription for an elderly woman who could not leave home due to the icy conditions.
But when Mrs Young arrived at the St Edmund's Centre, at The Centre, Greenstead, she slipped on ice outside the building.
Mrs Young said that earlier in the day she had been delivering letters with her husband Tim, also a borough councillor, when they had seen a number of elderly people having problems on the ice outside the parade of estate shops.
On calling the council, she had been informed it was not council policy to grit pavements.
"I thought that was very contradictory. As a council, we are trying to encourage people to walk more but we aren't doing anything to ensure people's safety when walking conditions aren't safe."
Mrs Young said it was an issue for Colchester Council, Essex County Council and the Primary Care Trust.
"We need to tackle this problem in a lateral way. As a minimum I believe health, Colchester Council offices, shops, post offices, libraries, sheltered housing schemes should have their access pavements gritted."
Published Monday, January 13, 2003
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