OUTRAGED residents say grit lorries are going so fast that salt is being flung onto the pavement rather than the road.

Gordon Webb, 32, of Crown Hill, Upshire, which was the scene of an accident last week, said the pavement was sprayed with grit as lorries sped past on Saturday, but they missed the road completely.

“They must have been doing 40 mph,” he said. “It was going so fast it gritted the paths and not the road. It's getting really slippery now.

“On Saturday and Sunday, there were mothers with children in their cars and they had to be pushed up the hill.

“It's a major road and it's used by buses, a lot of commercial vehicles and cars.”

He said he had told the council what happened, but they had not returned to grit the road again.

His neighbour, Gill Davis, 55, added: “I saw two gritting lorries down here on different days and I thought they couldn't be dropping grit, but my husband said they were.

“It's been horrendous. There's a shallow incline round the corner, but people still couldn't get up the hill. They were parking their cars opposite.”

Another Crown Hill resident, Iris Middleton, 87, said: “I phoned the council to ask when it would be sorted out and he said it wasn't an important road, or words to that effect.”

Mr Webb works for Webb and Brothers Recovery, also based in Crown Hill, and said he had been constantly rescuing cars that had skidded off the road since the snow hit.

“Cars have been sliding off the roads and ending up in ditches,” he said. “Something has to be done about it.”

The road was closed last Wednesday (December 15) after a car crash that left two people trapped for half an hour.

Essex County Council, which is responsible for gritting, is focusing on keeping major roads clear and has been gritting A and B roads and major rural roads.

A spokesman said: “Decisions on when to grit the network are based on dedicated forecasts from the council’s own weather service and readings from roadside temperatures across the county.”

He added that the council was warning people to travel with extreme caution, as the icy weather is due to continue during the week.