Council leader apologises over grit bin levels

The leader of Derby City Council has apologised to residents after the city's gritting operation was found to be ill-prepared for the recent cold weather.

Labour's Nadine Peatfield previously said the city's gritting bins were topped up.

However, BBC reporters found several bins were empty or full of rubbish, and the council's dedicated map of bins was out of date.

Peatfield told the BBC on Wednesday there will now be a "full belt-and-braces" review into the issue and committed to a funding boost to make improvements in this year's budget.

She also committed to refreshing the council's grit bin map.

Speaking during a full council meeting on Wednesday after criticism from the Conservatives, Peatfield said she was "absolutely, perfectly happy to apologise to residents".

"The information that I was given at the time was not the correct information," she said.

"I completely accept that it fell below the standard that we expect.

"Ultimately, filling the grit bins is an operational matter… councillors do not get involved in operational stuff.

"When something goes wrong operationally, sometimes we don't get to learn about it until it goes wrong.

"Once we were aware, we have acted as fast as we can.

"We acknowledge and we apologise that it didn't go right this time."

The Conservatives had branded the city's gritting operation "inadequate" before Peatfield made the comments to the BBC insisting the city was prepared for Storm Goretti.

Complaints had been made by residents following Peatfield's interview over the levels of grit bins - of which there are about 120 in the city.

The BBC checked 15 bins in different areas of the city and found six were full, two listed on the authority's interactive map were not there, while others contained rubbish.

Following the meeting, she said: "We will be looking at the strategy that we have for grit bins and gritting…we will be looking at our budget this year and putting more money into grit bins.

"We will do a full belt-and-braces review of it and we will make sure it is better for next year."

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