VILLAGERS claim a council’s road salting policy is putting their safety at risk.

People living in the Woodland Road area of Esh Winning say since Durham County Council downgraded their street to "Priority Two" salting status, emergency crews have struggled to reach them.

They claim buses have to turn back, motorists find it difficult to access the streets and pensioners become trapped in their homes.

A total of 390 residents have signed a petition calling on the council to reinstate the area’s Priority One status, which was lost in 2002. Representatives presented the petition to County Hall on Monday.

Janet Brogan, from the Esh Winning residents’ group, said: "As soon as there’s a bit of frost the buses are taken off and the cars can’t get up and down the bank.

"The area is mainly bungalows for elderly people who rely on the bus to get to the doctor’s surgery or do their shopping.

"Everybody is totally put off from going out."

Mrs Brogan, who lives on nearby Osprey Close, said numerous accidents have happened in the area and residents are worried about their safety.

During last winter, areas were inaccessible for up to four or five days at a time, she said.

"What do we have to do, wait until someone dies before we get anything done?"

A Durham County Council spokesman said Woodland Road was downgraded to Priority Two when the authority had to make some difficult budget decisions, during a review which considered traffic usage, local knowledge and experience of problems such as severe gradients and known ‘cold spots’.

He said: "The county council’s annual winter road maintenance budget is £2.45m, but in coping with last winter - the coldest since 1995-96 and during which we had the heaviest February snowfall for 18 years - the council promised to spend whatever the weather dictated to maintain our promised level of service.

"The fact that we spent more than £1m over and above our budget shows the high priority we gave this area of service provision.

"In light of problems encountered last winter, the council is to undertake a further review of its winter maintenance operations - including its salting routes - this summer, and the points raised in this petition will be considered as part of that process, together with the many other requests we have received."