Icy pavements in North East Fife have been branded a health hazard following the removal of more than 200 grit bins in the area.
Councillors are seeking an urgent meeting with Fife Council officers this week amid fears someone could be seriously hurt if they slip and fall.
While temperatures rose over the weekend, the end of last week saw a barrage of complaints as people attempted – and often failed – to negotiate slippery footpaths.
The council had been in the process of taking away grit bins from priority one routes, where roads are already gritted by the local authority, as part of a bid to save £125,000 on winter maintenance.
The recent prolonged cold spell prompted the authority to suspend the removal of grit bins last week – but not before around 250 had already taken away in the north of the region.
Liberal Democrat group leader and Tay Bridgehead councillor Tim Brett said: “It would appear that North East Fife is disadvantaged because all 250 bins in our area have been withdrawn but the process has been halted elsewhere.
“We are continuing to get concerns from residents across our ward about this and particularly about the hazardous position for pedestrians on icy pavements, where previously local residents could tackle this themselves but now no longer have the ability to do so.”
Conservative group depute leader Andy Heer said taking away grit bins where roads are gritted seven days a week did not work as it meant pavements remained untouched.
He said the mini gritter which used to grit paths had also been taken away.
“Pavements don’t get gritted and they’ve taken away the means for the public to do it for themselves,” he said.
“The council is encouraging people to walk to work, walk to school, walk to the shops but they’re gritting the roads and not the pavements.
“There just seems to be a lack of joined-up thinking on this subject.”
Senior transportation manager Derek Crowe said a budget decision had been taken by councillors in 2016/17 to cap the number of grit bins as the position had become unsustainable.
“Further…budget savings were approved on the winter services budget that covered footway gritting, carriageway route optimisation and grit bin reduction,” he added.
Mr Crowe said the transportation team had been dealing with requests for reinstatement on a case by case basis and most of those had been agreed to.
And he said no more would be removed before the end of the winter.
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