Mystery over rock salt on Welshpool pavements
Sunday saw dozens of volunteers roll up their sleeves to carry out much needed maintenance and tidying work around the town, with the Mayor leading the praise.
But the appearance of rock salt along the pavements has alarmed dog walkers who claim that not only can it make their pets ill if digested, but it could damage their paws.
Mayor, Cllr Nick Howells, confirmed that it wasn’t part of the tidy-up team’s work, and now Powys County Council has also said it wasn’t them, leading us to ask: who is it then?
“Salt is only used for planned winter maintenance treatment,” a County Council spokesperson told us this afternoon.
“Rock salt has not been applied to town centre pavements to treat weeds by our highway operations team.”
The alarm was raised on Monday when an anonymous post on Facebook stated: “While I applaud every person who has taken part in the absolutely brilliant tidying up around town, I have to say that dumping rock salt everywhere to try and kill the weeds without any kind of signs is irresponsible and someone needs to go around removing it all.
“Walking my dog through town this evening I was absolutely horrified to discover what it was she was trying to eat.
“Thankfully I managed to stop her ingesting too much of it, but having spoken with a local vet they've advised me it would be life threatening if I hadn't realised what was happening. The salt is absolutely everywhere.”
In response to the post, Cllr Howells said he would personally investigate the issue and replied: “I have to say on behalf of Welshpool Town Council and Ground Force, that as far as I am aware, we are not responsible in the spreading of rock salt. I will investigate to be on the safe side.”
Cllr Billy Spencer added: “I would just like to say that no member of our tidy up group has put salt down on any pavements.”
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