Lessons to be learned from Dudley grit bin headaches after 500 bins were removed in winter weather - here's areas that are being reviewed

A review into winter maintenance was part of Dudley Council’s 2025/26 budget which was approved by the ruling minority Conservative group with Lib Dem support.

Public outrage erupted during recent cold weather over the removal of around 500 bins as part of the review.

A new review has now been announced which the Lib Dems claim would not have happened without a petition they launched gathering around 1,000 names.

Speaking before an extraordinary meeting of full council on January 29, sparked by a Labour motion calling for grit bins to be replaced, Lib Dem Leader Clr Ryan Priest said: “The budget was passed believing what we were doing was making the service more efficient, what came out of that is a service that for most people in the borough did not exist.

“The changes have been over-zealous and it is right the administration rolls back and reviews the situation.

“We can’t change the past – what we can do is look at this service that ended up being worse.”

Lib Dem councillor Andrew Tromans added: “In the budget it didn’t say we are going to remove 500 grit bins; it said we would review them and wouldn’t take them away if they were more than 25m from a main gritting route, that didn’t happen.

“Now it’s time to look for solutions, the devil is in the detail.

“There are lessons to be learned for our group, we will take that on board.”

Ahead of the meeting the Lib Dems presented Cllr Patrick Harley, Dudley Council’s leader with a grit bin full of leaflets calling for grit bins to be brought back.

After suggesting the bin would be better if it was full of grit, Cllr Harley said: “Sometimes the smallest savings cause you the biggest headaches.

“This was a £60,000 saving, it caused us huge headaches so first of all you have to put your hands up and apologise about that.

“The good that has come out of this is that we are going to have a full review of our winter maintenance programme.

“That means grit bins that have been removed won’t go back if the grit has not been used for three or four years but grit bins that have been moved that maybe shouldn’t have been removed, as part of the review, they will go back.

“There may be additional bins in locations that we didn’t have before, there is also more modern machinery and equipment that we can use to get onto side streets that can maybe be used and get into the programme.

“This review is a great opportunity to enhance the winter maintenance programme.”

During the debate at the extra ordinary council meeting, Labour’s Dudley leader, Cllr Adam Aston, said: “The politics of removing grit bins took away the ability of the community to look after themselves and keep roads clear that the council doesn’t have the capacity to treat.”