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Listeners to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio Cornwall will be familiar with complaints that during the recent cold weather Cornwall Council did not do enough to grit minor roads to rural communities. The council's response was that with more than 4,500 miles of road in Cornwall it is simply not possible to grit every square inch, and so priority is given to the 20% of roads which carry 80% of the traffic.

Some listeners, particularly those whose villages are just yards from a (gritted) main trunk road, were still not happy. Others thought that the council should also grit unadopted estate roads, and even pavements.

The framework which establishes the gritting priorities is to be found - a national policy document in the form of a Code of Practice, which runs to 316 pages and which has its roots at the Department of Transport's research centre at Weybridge in Surrey.

There are lots of words in this document (gritting priorities are on page 174) and most of the advice can be summarised in just two: "common sense." Councils are told to weigh up lots of conflicting interests, including value for taxpayers' money, and make their own judgements about how to cope.

Now that daytime temperatures have returned to double figures I suspect the fuss will also melt away. But there are issues to be explored - such as local town and parish councils taking more responsibility (and raising their taxes?) - and lessons learned. Including the one about how good government is not always popular with all of the people all of the time.