‘We had the skills, so we acted’: Bury’s ‘one-stop community gritting service’ helps out during icy blast

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A ‘community gritting’ service has been set up by two public-spirited maintenance workers during icy weather. Howard Heffernan and Dan Dickinson have spent the past week tirelessly filling grit bins, clearing the steps and drives of elderly and disabled people and assisting drivers in the towns of Bury, Ramsbottom and Radcliffe.

Howard, 32, said the pair had created ‘a one-stop community hotline’ to assist with dangerous ice and snow conditions in the area.

Howard and Dan, who work for Heffernan Services, a property maintenance and landscaping firm based in Topping Fold, have also made a a school playground usable and helped with broken down vehicles.

Bury Council said they could not set time-scales to replenish the borough’s 324 grit bins as ‘this work is carried out when other statutory work has been completed’.