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Road salt / grit

jacko - 5/12/10 at 04:35 PM

Has the council in your area been salting /gritting the side roads?
Other years they have done the road where i live but this year it seem's there only doing the main roads and not very good at that
Jacko

RazMan - 5/12/10 at 04:39 PM

Not a hint of anything off the main roads in my area - my car will be moving tomorrow morning for the first time in a week!

zilspeed - 5/12/10 at 04:48 PM

They've managed a double whammy here.

They haven't done the streets, so people won't go there and are leaving cars scattered all over the main roads, because they can't get into the streets with any guarantee of succes in either getting in or back out again.
Main thoroughfares have been reduced to single track roads all over the place as a result.

As I write this, our cul de sac is clear, that's because we did it ourselves.
There are tons of snow piled up 4-5 ft high all over the place.

Just round the corner, the lazy barstewards are sitting frozen in for the want of a few hours work.
They might even get to know their neighbours a bit better as a result.

thunderace - 5/12/10 at 04:51 PM

my local mp told me to save money they are only doing the main roads where i stay.

thunderace - 5/12/10 at 04:56 PM

quote:
Originally posted by zilspeed
They've managed a double whammy here.

They haven't done the streets, so people won't go there and are leaving cars scattered all over the main roads, because they can't get into the streets with any guarantee of succes in either getting in or back out again.
Main thoroughfares have been reduced to single track roads all over the place as a result.

As I write this, our cul de sac is clear, that's because we did it ourselves.
There are tons of snow piled up 4-5 ft high all over the place.

Just round the corner, the lazy barstewards are sitting frozen in for the want of a few hours work.
They might even get to know their neighbours a bit better as a result.

they cleared my mums bit as she offered the council guy a bottle of malt,it was cleard in 5 mins even cleaed her path and drive

omega 24 v6 - 5/12/10 at 05:01 PM

FFS theyr'e not even gritting the main roads. I just passed 2 gritters on a 17 mile strech of cleared road which was icy and they were not gritting but were loaded.

omega 24 v6 - 5/12/10 at 05:10 PM

quote:

hey cleared my mums bit as she offered the council guy a bottle of malt,it was cleard in 5 mins even cleaed her path and drive

I'm saddened that you think this is acceptable

Many of us hard working working people are infuriated that a guy who's wages we are paying can then be "bought" by an old lady with a bottle of malt. Effectively "WE" have paid for him to clear your mothers drive AND he has benefited further from her donation of a bottle of Malt.

He should be shopped and sacked/reprimanded for his actions. He SHOULD have gone round later.

will121 - 5/12/10 at 05:13 PM

i believe there are only a certain amount of resorces available to grit roads and as its been such a perlonged cold spell they have been sticking with the main roads and not able to grit back roads.
We all think they should do the roads we want to drive on but to please everyone would be endless.

jacko - 5/12/10 at 05:27 PM

quote:
Originally posted by thunderace

quote:
Originally posted by zilspeed
They've managed a double whammy here.

They haven't done the streets, so people won't go there and are leaving cars scattered all over the main roads, because they can't get into the streets with any guarantee of succes in either getting in or back out again.
Main thoroughfares have been reduced to single track roads all over the place as a result.

As I write this, our cul de sac is clear, that's because we did it ourselves.
There are tons of snow piled up 4-5 ft high all over the place.

Just round the corner, the lazy barstewards are sitting frozen in for the want of a few hours work.
They might even get to know their neighbours a bit better as a result.

they cleared my mums bit as she offered the council guy a bottle of malt,it was cleard in 5 mins even cleaed her path and drive

A few years ago we gave the bin men a 6 pack of beer for xmas and for there thanks they knocked the tops off the bottles on my nice newly painted garden gate .
Thats the last time we gave them anything

Alfa145 - 5/12/10 at 05:48 PM

Would someone remind me what a gritter looks like, not seen one since January.....

dhutch - 5/12/10 at 05:52 PM

Main roads only here too.
- We live opposite the police station and they havent even done our road.

jacko - 5/12/10 at 06:08 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Alfa145
Would someone remind me what a gritter looks like, not seen one since January.....

will121 - 5/12/10 at 06:11 PM

quote:
Originally posted by jacko

quote:
Originally posted by Alfa145
Would someone remind me what a gritter looks like, not seen one since January.....

its ok for us to want our roads gritted but who grits for the gritter??

adithorp - 5/12/10 at 06:29 PM

quote:
Originally posted by omega 24 v6
FFS theyr'e not even gritting the main roads. I just passed 2 gritters on a 17 mile strech of cleared road which was icy and they were not gritting but were loaded.

They were probably on thier way to the route that they werte asigned to grit. If they just started gritting every raod they drove along only the roads near the depots would get done.

MikeR - 5/12/10 at 06:48 PM

modern gritters should (if they bought the s/w) have a GPS system that knows the expected temperature in each area its driving in. It will then drop the appropriate amount of grit for its run. Someone may have already dropped the grit or someone may be going to drop it later when its more appropriate.

(or they could not have bought the system and it could just be down to a written instruction the driver has been given when he left the depot)

Confused but excited. - 5/12/10 at 06:54 PM

I live in a cul-de-sac and they even did up here, by reversing a wagon slowly with a guy stood in the back, shovelling out grit as they went. Not very keen on health and safety out here.

jacko - 5/12/10 at 06:56 PM

Wouldn't it be good if the gritters had trackers fitted so we could see were they are on a web site

zilspeed - 5/12/10 at 07:35 PM

They will have trackers fit.

All of our vehicles do.

Speaking of which.
Talking to one of my neighbours yesterday, he was telling me that his bosses have decided that GPS trackers in the vehicles aren't enough.

They want them to wear tracker watches.

Hes doesn't work for a council incidentally, a private contractor.

marcjagman - 5/12/10 at 08:06 PM

Due to the fact that I'm extremely poor I can't afford any snow clearing stuff and the only things my neighbours have are spades. I keep warm by helping push cars up the quite steep hill that we live on, which is also a cul de sac. What gets me is in the mornings my car is penned in by abandoned cars so I can't move even if I wanted to then they come back with their mates to dig their cars out and throw the snow around my car. I don't even know if my car is still there due to all the snow piled up, could have been nicked and I really wouldn't know.

Ninehigh - 5/12/10 at 08:38 PM

quote:
Originally posted by zilspeed
They want them to wear tracker watches.

Then every time I go to the toilet I'm gonna be shaking my arm in a "w**king my 4-foot richard" motion and see how long it is before something's said.

Where I am at the moment it's half and half, like a main residential road. Last time I saw a gritter it was doing about 35mph, very safe considering they're supposed to be driving on icy roads..

sonic - 5/12/10 at 09:22 PM

A fella opposite me works for the council and he has told me they are only griting main roads and only if they have too.

The reason being is that they don't expect to be using this much grit at this time of year and are saving stocks for early 2011 when they expect the bad weather,there is only so much budget he said and cannot afford to over spend.

omega 24 v6 - 5/12/10 at 10:04 PM

We've had snow and ice about 8 inch in the town all for a whole week.
No gritters on Friday
every man and his shovel/digger/gritter/street/pavement plough out on Saturday
Nothing on Monday
Nothing on Tuesday
Nothing on Wed
1 Street gritter on Thurs
Nothing on Friday
EVERY MAN JACK OUT ON SATURDAY.

DO I SENSE A PATTERN yes I do it's called time and half or double time.

sonic - 5/12/10 at 10:23 PM

Once upon a time we would all go outside and help each other clear the snow and dig cars out etc,i was reminded the other day that clearing your drive if it cuts across a public footpath is a know know!! basically because if joe public walks across and slips you will be held accountable because you modified the conditions!!

If they fall on an act of god ie snow there is nothing that they can do unless the council can be proved at fault.

We live in a crazy world and that is why people won't clear it anymore

martyn_16v - 5/12/10 at 10:47 PM

Seems pretty good around this way, my road looks like it got at least a token dusting once, more than it's ever had before. A grit bin has also appeared on the corner of the road. No grit in it mind, but it's a start

martyn_16v - 5/12/10 at 10:52 PM

quote:
Originally posted by sonic
if joe public walks across and slips you will be held accountable because you modified the conditions!!

Only if you do a crap job of it. If you just scrape off the top layer of snow and leave behind a layer of smooth compacted snow/ice then it's clearly more dangerous than it was before you got there. Clear it properly and put down some grit and roberts your mothers brother.

sonic - 5/12/10 at 11:01 PM

If it was only that simple!

I am married to a personnel injury lawyer and believe me it is not,even spreading grit can cause a slip hazard so i am told

Ninehigh - 5/12/10 at 11:14 PM

quote:
Originally posted by sonic
If it was only that simple!

I am married to a personnel injury lawyer and believe me it is not,even spreading grit can cause a slip hazard so i am told

See now this is one of those cases where people should know that icy conditions means there'll be ice about.

I had a thought a minute ago. I remember in Germany (or might have been Czech republic) don't use salt/grit because of the environmental impact. What do they do and why aren't we doing that?

spaximus - 5/12/10 at 11:39 PM

quote:
Originally posted by sonic
If it was only that simple!

I am married to a personnel injury lawyer and believe me it is not,even spreading grit can cause a slip hazard so i am told

You are dammed if you do dammed if you don't. We were told by our H&S and insurance people that there has been no cases where people who have cleared snow off paths have been taken to court and lost.
Common sense is that communities should work together in times like this. young people looking after old ones clearing their paths, neighbours helping clear the road we always used to do it before we became a nation in fear of the "personal injury lawyers" who are single handedly responsible for increases in everyones premiums. I have no issue with your wife, but the system where every bump is a claim. Every driver I have who has a rear end accident has at least 1 week off work for a sore neck. The reason? one was told that to "enhance" his claim you always get more if you lost time of work, currently �3.5k per claim.
It is not just snow, also first aid. There have been claims when people have rendered first aid only to have a claim for broken ribs during a heart CPR against them. It is shear lunacy

sonic - 6/12/10 at 01:18 PM

Totally agree! she fights against these claims and the people making the,. not for them!!

jacko - 6/12/10 at 06:25 PM

I seem to think it was on tv the other night that new law's had been passed to stop people claiming against people that had cleared snow off paths etc