ASTOUNDED Skipton traders say they have watched in disbelief as roadsweepers cleared away salt laid by gritters minutes earlier.

The stallholders are among the few people out and about early enough to see both important public services in action.

Some time after 6am on last week's market days they have looked on as North Yorkshire County Council's gritting wagon laid down the rocksalt, followed soon after by Craven District Council's roadsweeper.

The traders say more liaison between the two authorities is needed to ensure that all the ice-clearing grit stays down, ready for the rush hour.

Although Craven District Council claims its sweepers only clear the edge of the road and the gutter, the eagle-eyed traders say they inspected the road and found most of the grit had disappeared.

Peter Nicholson, who runs a vacuum parts stall opposite Holy Trinity Church, said: 'We just couldn't believe what we were seeing. I was talking with other traders and we just stood and watched in disbelief.

'I was going to bring my video camera in on Wednesday morning and send the tape in to You've Been Framed.

'Last Saturday and Monday mornings at about 6.30am North Yorkshire's gritter came along and laid down a load of grit. And about 10 minutes later Craven District Council's road sweeper came and sucked it all back up. When we looked on the road most of the grit had gone. It's quite funny in a way, but when you think about it the roads are more dangerous because of this.

'There obviously needs to be some more liaison between the county and district councils.'

John Shakespeare, Craven Council's cleansing officer, said: 'If people want clean streets then the sweeping programme has to be kept to. I have to stress that our sweepers only concentrate on the gutter areas of the road.'

And Richard Marr, acting divisional engineer for the county council's highways office in Skipton, said: 'We have both got separate jobs to do and it might appear that there is a conflict of works.

'But we have an obligation to get the High Street, which is a priority one route, salted before 7am. And John Shakespeare has a duty to ensure that the street is swept twice a day.

'As far as I am concerned this situation doesn't present a danger because the brushes of the sweeper are only in the channels at the edges of the road.'

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