A TAXI firm is threatening to sue Bolton Council after rush hour snow brought chaos to Bolton's roads today. Furious drivers from Cobra Private Hire, Manchester Road, plan to take the council through the Small Claims Court for loss of earnings. The six self-employed drivers claim that they lost around £30 each because they could not work.

One driver Sean Hornby said: "Everything came to a standstill. It took me 1 hours to get from Farnworth to Kearsley.

"In the end, we decided to stop work because it was just too dangerous on the roads.

"It is always the same in Bolton. Just a bit of snow brings the whole town to a standstill." Meanwhile, across the borough hundreds of angry motorists were late for work and police reported "numerous" minor bumps as drivers skidded on icy roads. Council chiefs admitted that some main commuter roads into town had not been gritted in time for the morning rush hour.

Exactly a year ago, the town was gridlocked for hours when a great escape plan by motorists to go home early because of the snow went horribly wrong.

Today, Mr Peter Rogerson, chairman of the Manchester Occupational Health and Safety Group accused Bolton Council of "putting lives at risk."

Mr Rogerson, who lives at Thornham Drive, Astley Bridge, said: "Despite the forecast of sub zero temperatures and a significant risk of snow across the Pennines, Bolton MBC has yet again failed to grit the roads. "It is scandalous that Bolton has ignored the risk to the safety of workers, and possibly put lives at risk, by their reluctance, inability or plain apathy."

The council did not not start gritting until 4.30am because it was claimed that fierce winds would have blown it into the kerb.

Mr Richard Wilson, group engineer for Bolton Council's highways maintenance team, said: "We have had six gritting wagons out this morning, but there will have been some roads which were not done before people came to work.

"One Wednesday night, the forecast was for five bands of snow and we took action, but we had no snow,

"Last night, we did not grit until the wind dropped because it would have blown up against the kerb and at £20 a ton for gritting salt it would have been a waste."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.