A FORMAL review into the response of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to the winter snowfalls has come a step closer.

Councillor Robert Donnell and Cllr Stephen Reid intend to table a motion to the next full council meeting, praising officers for their response to the snowfalls of December 21, which caused traffic chaos, and January 5, which shut down the borough.

But the motion will also ask for the council’s response to be scrutinised to establish whether there is more that could be done to assist residents who wished to demonstrate their community spirit – for example, by gritting their own roads – and to examine how the council’s disaster response strategy performed.

While not the independent review that some have called for, the motion stands a good chance of succeeding on February 11 as councillors Donnell and Reid are prominent members of the borough council’s ruling Conservative group.

Cllr Donnell told The Gazette: “I think there is a huge benefit in working out what went wrong. Was it just a freak incident or not? Everyone has to understand whether we could do things better.”

While the review, if approved by council, would attempt to establish what went wrong, it should not seek to apportion blame, said Cllr Donnell.

“I don’t think it is constructive to have two or three nights witch-hunting,” he added.

Roads and pavements are the responsibility of Hampshire County Council, while the borough council has responsibility for its car parks, leisure centres and other facilities.

But it has come under pressure to help out with pavements and has been criticised for the fact that some recycling bins have been collected almost five weeks late because of the snow.

Cllr Donnell said he was not sure whe-ther it would be appropriate to call county council officers to appear before a scrutiny committee because he did not want to waste taxpayers money duplicating effort if Hampshire decided to scrutinise its own response.

Hampshire leader Cllr Ken Thornber has said his county council will review its response to the snow chaos, but he has not defined how.