BOLTON Council has rejected claims that budget cutbacks were responsible for traffic chaos caused by heavy snowfall yesterday.

Early morning traffic ground to a halt across the town despite the fact that gritters went out twice during the night before the snow arrived.

In October, the executive member for environmental services, Cllr Nick Peel, approved plans to save the authority £100,000 through a number of different measures.

These included the use of a new type of salt that sticks to the road, a reduction in the number of weeks a secondary team is on stand-by, and the sale of three gritting lorries.

But Cllr Peel claimed these measures had not affected the day-to-day running of Bolton’s gritting operation.

He said: “The level of gritting has been the same as last year and the year before that. The budget cuts were made to the stand-by service only and that has had no effect on the service.

“To suggest that the budget cuts have had anything to do with the traffic problems is irresponsible.”

But Lib-Dem Cllr David Wilkinson, who spoke out against the cutbacks earlier this year, said: “When these new measures were brought into place, we were assured we had enough man-power.

“There was not a vast amount of snow but people have been unable to get into work and schools have closed.”

His comments were echoed by people who made angry calls to the council’s switchboard as they struggled to cope with the weather.

Commuters and parents taking children on the school run — before it was announced most schools had shut for the day — were caught up in the snow chaos. Margaret Seddon, of Horwich, spent three hours trying to get to work then fought her way back home to collect her children after their school was closed. She said: “It’s time to sack the officer in charge and employ a farmer, gardener, fisherman or even a teenager who knew yesterday it was going to snow and took precautions.”

Shane McKee-Ryan of Astley Bridge had to abandon his car on the way to work. He said: “I don’t believe for a minute the gritters were out at 3am and 6am.”

And Mike Tyerman, of Holcombe Road, Little Lever, said: “Time and again, predicted and minor spells of bad weather bring us to a resounding halt. It is not good enough that in the 21st century, with the technology available and the levels of motoring and council taxation we pay, a simple cold snap causes such chaos. The competence of those managing the highways provision surely must be brought into question.”

The town has seen a number of mild winters recently but Tuesday morning’s snowfall was the heaviest for several years.

The council said gritters had been out at 8pm on Monday and again at 3am on Tuesday. Then, after heavy snowfall at 5am, snow ploughs went out at 6am.

A council spokesman added: “Gritting is not effective unless there is some traffic to mix it in with the snow and ice.

“Given the volume of the snow that fell and the low traffic flows in the early morning, it has taken some time for the effects of the gritting and ploughing to take effect.”