Eastbourne residents are falling every half hour on ‘life-threatening’ packed ice, says nurse

Aniko and Eva Varga have been working in South Avenue, Beechy Avenue, and Cavalry Crescent as in-house nurses and said ‘the pavements and the road everywhere are thick with ice’.

Eva said: “We see from the window that someone falls every half hour, and people do not go to school or work in the morning because it is life-threatening. Many elderly and disabled people live in this area, but the council is not interested, no one comes to salt or clean.”

They said it has been the same all week since the snow and ice arrived on the evening of December 11. Eva called it a ‘nightmare’. She said on December 14 they’re still seeing people fall and although it melts a bit through the day, it was freezes over again each night as temperatures drop to sub-zero.

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said: “We have plans in place to manage winter weather events including snow and very cold temperatures but we do not have the resources to grit all roads in the county or to routinely grit footpaths.

“Our set gritting routes give priority to the busiest roads connecting our communities. In addition, there are over 700 roadside grit bins filled with salt located throughout the county for residents and communities to use on public roads and footpaths to help clear ice and snow, and these are regularly refilled. Details of our winter service including the gritting routes can be found on the East Sussex Highways website.”

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