Solicitors believe they have ‘a very strong case’ for successful legal action against West Lothian Council, after the authority admitted ‘operational failure’ led to salt not being spread on primary routes.
West Lothian admitted in a statement that a Met Office forecast of sub-zero temperatures on the morning of 13 January ‘appears to have been misinterpreted’ by council workers as ‘indicating that conditions were appropriate to stand down gritting patrols’.
Thompson Solicitors said that while it was ‘notoriously difficult to successfully sue a council for failing to grit roads,’ West Lothian’s acknowledgement meant that a client involved in an accident on an untreated road on 13 January had a good chance of a successful legal claim.
The ‘duty to grit’ to ensure that ‘safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice’ placed on councils by the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 says that this is only insofar as is ‘reasonably practicable’.
Cllr Robert de Bold, West Lothian’s executive councillor for the environment, said in response to the accident that Thompson Solicitors’ client, Debbie Gourlay,was involved in, that following a forecast at 3.47am ‘monitoring should have continued’. However, he said that at no point from midday on 12 January until 8am on 13 January had there been a forecast of adverse conditions.
‘At 8am, the first reports of freezing conditions were received, and gritters deployed immediately, but ice had already formed.’ Cllr De Bold promised a ‘full investigation’, but underlined that ‘there are no indications that the existing winter maintenance policy is inappropriate, or that there were insufficient resources available’.
Gourlay, of Muiriston Road, Livingston, was driving her three children to school when she lost control of her vehicle at a mini roundabout. She claimed that the council had told her it had received more than 200 complaints that morning.
An opposition Labour councilor, Lawrence Fitzpatrick, claimed the winter maintenance service ‘has been hit by cutbacks, and the council could be in dereliction of its duty of care’.
However, SNP Cllr De Bold said that while a full investigation was being conducted, ‘there are no indications that the current winter maintenance policy is inappropriate, or that there were insufficient resources available’. This was ‘an operational failure by those on duty at the time’, he said.
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