My nanna lives at The Lonnen, South Shields, and, like most of the elderly residents, she has difficulty with mobility.

The untreated paths were an accident waiting to happen and prevented many residents, including my nanna, from being able to go out.

I contacted the council to complain about the paths and roads around The Lonnen not being cleared and gritted – and also about the lack of grit in the yellow bins, which had been empty since the last snowfall at the beginning of January.

We always go to my nanna's and use the grit to make sure the pavement outside of her house is clear in case she needs to go out.

When I contacted the council's supposed customer service centre, I was met by a very argumentative member of staff who advised me that it is not failing elderly residents as it has been advised by the Government to "not treat any paths or refill bins as all grit is to be kept for roads".

While I agree it is important to keep the roads clear, I cannot accept that council workers do not have the manpower to come and remove the snow from the paths, and use sand – which is not a scarce resource, due to all of our beaches – to keep the paths passable.

Yet again, it appears that the elderly residents of The Lonnen are forgotten about.

It has left me wondering why we bother to pay our council tax as the level of service that we are receiving is appalling to say the least.
 
Melanie Sweeting,
Commercial Road,
South Shields.