A WINSFORD resident is who lives at the bottom of a steep hill is calling on the council to install a gritting box after the local postman ‘nearly broke his neck’ getting to neighbours during the snow.

Joy Beresford of Carnoustie Close wants Cheshire West and Chester Council to amend the criteria of where they site grit boxes, following a week of snow during which where she and her neighbours were trapped.

The council are only willing to install boxes on roads with gradients greater than 1 in ten Joy said: “Most people have to park right at the very top of the hill to be able to get out the next morning. Everyone knows that if you want to get to work the next morning, you don’t leave your car down the bottom of the hill. It’s downright dangerous.

Joy has contacted the council several times to ask for a grit box to be installed on the close, but to no avail.

“I rang them and they said they don’t have the resources. It’s a snake like hill that winds half a mile downward. We are at the very bottom of the close and there are plenty of places we could put one,” she said.

A survey published on January 24 by Pedestrian rights charity, Living Streets, found that nearly two thirds of people in the North West (65 per cent) had slipped on icy pavements during the cold snap, with 25 per cent injured.

Elsewhere, 70 per cent of adults thought their council could do more to keep pavements clear of snow and ice.

A CWAC spokesman said the council had no plans to install a box on Carnoustie Close.

They said: “Carnoustie Drive doesn’t meet our criteria for a grit box. Nearby Fairways does, and has a grit box because of its steep gradient, which is greater than one in 10.”