There is wide spread anger in Thanet today as local authorities deny a snow problem despite Kent Police begging them to take action.

This story starts several days ago when forecasters began to predict snow for parts of Britain. With the early fall of snow on Wednesday morning confirming these predictions road gritters in Thanet were nowhere to be seen.

By lunchtime Thursday it is becoming apparent that the roads of Thanet are not in a fit state to be used.

Kent police have strongly asked KCC to take action but according to officials action has already been taken. It is safe to assume that the deaths and stalled public transport are a figment of our collective imagination.

Tony Flaig reported yesterday (Wednesday, 10th February) that Kent Police had asked KCC to make sure the roads were correctly salted removing all possibility that Thanet's local authorities can claim that they were taken by surprise.

So it seems that our "leaders" have taken to closing their eyes and pretending everything is fine. Tony also reported this morning that during a BBC Radio Kent interview County Councillor Nick Chard seemed to be claiming that all major roads had been treated.

However this morning Michael Child reported that from his vantage at the foot of The Plains of Waterloo he can see there are no busses running, several of the cars that have tried to drive down it this morning have gone completely out of control Michael adds so far there hasn’t been a major accident.

Not that it will hurt sales. During the last dusting of snow Dishwasher Salt sales rose 300% and cat litter was not far behind. The reason - DIY road grit - perhaps this is what KCC are hoping for?

So while we struggle to keep going under up to 10cm of snow places like New York (over the pond in the USA) have managed to keep some semblance of normality under ten times that - having a meter of snow to contend with. By comparison our snow is nothing.

Which is why our citizens are asking how come KCC and TDC between them not only failed to grit key roads but appeared to lie about it too.

One service not taken in by the hype is Waste and Recycling which has been suspended across Thanet [link] due to the "heavy" snow (one tenth that of New York).

The conditions out on the roads are pretty treacherous and we simply cannot risk sending out our refuse trucks in these conditions. Said Cllr. Shirley Tomlinson, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services. As we've said before, the last thing we want is an accident and I'm sure residents can understand that. I'd like to thank them for their patience during this time. As soon as it is safe for our teams to go out, they will be back out collecting again.

So who is telling the truth Cllr. Shirley Tomlinson or Cllr. Nick Chard? Nick has told the BBC that the roads have been salted and are therefore safe to use but Shirley has had to tell people rubbish collections are not going to go ahead because the roads are not safe to drive on.

Meanwhile Robert Burgess, KCC Councillor for Margate West has told East Kent to "be sensible" stop moaning and stay home as they can't grit because of the snow. He writes: I can't get out of my road let alone Ramsgate. Be sensible out there Kent Highways are gritting 24/7 but it is difficult to have effect whilst it is still snowing.

Looking out of my window, the sun is shining, the snow is melting and the sky is about as clear as you could reasonably expect so where are the gritters? I have to wonder when Mr Burgess expects the gritting to be done. They don't grit before the snow and they, apparently, can not grit during it. After seems a bit pointless.

A bigger problem could be tomorrow morning (better keep the gritters home where it is safe). Following todays melt the night time re-freeze could prove to make the roads the most treacherous they have been all week. Without gritters out doing their job once more we could face unacceptable breakdowns in basic road availability.

Before that, however, we shall find out if our local councillors believe in the phantom salt. We shall see how many councillors will show up for the cabinet meeting this evening. (Found via Live in Thanet TDC Info tool).