A TOWN blighted by slippery, icy roads has had its plea for a salt bin refused.

Instead, Manningtree has had to join Essex County Council’s Salt Bag Pilot Scheme, which is designed to ration salt levels and reduce theft.

Under the scheme, Essex County Council supplies bags of salt and sand to communities for use on roads and pavements, rather than leaving it in roadside salt bins.

Ray Streames, Manningtree town councillor, said: “The salt they supply is for use on main highways and A-roads, but we have problems in other areas.

“Brook Street and South Street were like skating rinks and there was at least one car collision.

“The council seems to lack common sense.” Emmeline Smith, an Essex County Council spokesman, said: “We are not accepting any new requests for salt bins this season.

“The salt within them was being misused, either on people’s personal property and not on the highway, or there was wholescale theft from the bins, with evidence suggesting the salt was being re-sold back to the public.

“A pilot is being undertaken to test alternative ways of distributing the salt to ensure that it remains available to the local community and is used on the highways.”

The bags are now being stored in a boat shed in Stour Street and will be distributed to problem areas by volunteers Belinda Isted, of Sitwell Close, said: “We have lived on Lawford Dale for eight years and every year it turns into an ice skating rink. It is really dangerous.

“The main ring road of Lawford Dale is a steep hill and it would take a gritter about ten mins to grit, but apparently the Highways Department cannot spare the time, or the grit, to do it, and 600 houses doesn’t make it a main road.

“I decided I would help grit my part of my road so my son and I took two sledges to the nearest grit bin. But when we got there, much to our surprise, it was more than half empty, and even emptier after we left it. I rang the Highways Agency and I found out it had no plans to refill the grit bins.”