Winter: It hasn't gone away, you know ...

A plan to deal quickly with snowfall on the streets of Kilcullen is to be explored by Kilcullen Community Action and local businesspeople.

This follows the experiences during the sudden snows before Christmas, which left some footpaths in very poor conditions for a long period of time.

The issue was raised at KCA's first meeting of 2011 by acting chairman Noel Clare. He said he had been approached by local businessman Paul Carey with the idea, to put in place a plan for early snow clearance.

In the discussion, the very patchy response to clearing footpaths in the first of the two bouts of snow was noted. Particular reference was made to the conditions on the bridge footpaths, which quickly became hard packed ice which took a long time to clear. This caused a number of pedestrians to risk walking on the road as the safer option.

Issues such as exactly who can call on resources in the Defence Forces to help deal with snow were raised.

The general idea of the 'snow plan' is to have a rota of businesspeople and other groups who could clear snow quickly with the appropriate tools.

The matter is to be explored further.