grit 'crisis'

[Andy™]

it would appear all councils etc are running low on grit...

anyone else think its their fault for inappropriate use?

now im not an expert at clearing snow, but im sure it would make more sense to move the snow to the side of the road and use less grit (i have never seen a gritter with a snow plough), than not move any snow and cover it with grit and hope it will melt it...

so far i have only seen only seen the one gritter in south tyneside, so i have no idea how they have used thousands of tonnes of grit, and have now started using sand from the beach because they only have 550 tonnes left...

and as a side note, its snowing again, badly. which means more snow to clear off my van tomorrow morning. im bored with it now

 

[batty]

It would appear the government are not ready for a small thing like snow. If they spent a bit less on wars and such like maybe we would have the finance to be ready. Personally for the amount of tax I pay I think its digusting I have to put up with the state of the roads with pot holes and now snow and ice. This country is going to the dogs.

Batty

 

[tom1]

It would appear the government are not ready for a small thing like snow. If they spent a bit less on wars and such like maybe we would have the finance to be ready. Personally for the amount of tax I pay I think its digusting I have to put up with the state of the roads with pot holes and now snow and ice. This country is going to the dogs.Batty

and its getting there fast

 

[androiduk2002]

Bucks anounced yesterday the grit stocks where low and was only gritting "major routes" , this happened last year as well ! ! ! . IMHO its because we have got used to mild winters so the councils havent been buying as much grit as they was say 20 years ago.

But now those winters of 20 years ago seem to be making a come back we are struggling, this coupled with people being taught how to pass a driving test rather than how to drive, and our lack of snow driving experience due to said mild winters is a receipe for disaster. Proof in point watching a gent in his flash BMW earlier trying to reverse in the car park near me today, revs for to high the more his wheels span the higher he reved , and then looked shocked as all he did was slide sideways towards a car next to him ! !

Now people are complaining about the schools being shut to much ! ! ! WE (the worlds population) are the ones to blame for this, in this day of blame coulter , is it not possible to sue a school should your child slip on ice in the play ground and break a leg ? Is this why schools are having to be extra cautious ?

Who knows, maybe its just another issue of the world gone mad ! !

 

[Lurch]

Personally for the amount of tax I pay I think its digusting I have to put up with the state of the roads with pot holes

Now that could really get me going off on one. Since I got my latest car with low profile tyres and large wheels I've noticed even more how undriveable it is on any roads anywhere.

WRT to the grit, I don;t think anyone expects anything any more. I mean, when I was younger we had proper snow up North and people got shovels out and got on with it, 15 years ago when I moved here we were a bit WTF at the whole town shutting down after seeing a quarter inch of snow. Now the whole country is like it, first sign of flood, snow, rain, slightly inclement weather and the country is just standing there looking for someone to blame rather than getting on with it, not that anyone would get on with it because no-one knows how. People aren;t brought up to get on with things, they're brought up now to put up with things and blame someone else where possible.

 

[batty]

Now that could really get me going off on one. Since I got my latest car with low profile tyres and large wheels I've noticed even more how undriveable it is on any roads anywhere.

If you damage a wheel or a tyre you have no chance of claiming of council. I had to have a new spring on my van last year and I am sure that was a pot hole that caused it.

 

[Lurch]

If you damage a wheel or a tyre you have no chance of claiming of council. I had to have a new spring on my van last year and I am sure that was a pot hole that caused it.

Yeah, I wouldn;t even bother trying. There's a nasty dip on the A38 just after the A50 turning heading West, I've hit at 95 and nearly ripped all the wheels off, so next time I happened to hit it at 65, same effect. Also a couple of bridges round here with similar issues, and where roads keep getting mediocrely resurfaced without raising manholes it's like driving across an old farm track on A roads. Just some of the problems with the world today, price before quality on everything. I'm sure most of it is down to shoddiness.

 

[batty]

Yeah, I wouldn;t even bother trying. There's a nasty dip on the A38 just after the A50 turning heading West, I've hit at 95 and nearly ripped all the wheels off, so next time I happened to hit it at 65, same effect. Also a couple of bridges round here with similar issues, and where roads keep getting mediocrely resurfaced without raising manholes it's like driving across an old farm track on A roads. Just some of the problems with the world today, price before quality on everything. I'm sure most of it is down to shoddiness.

I think its the same everywhere, my Transit really notices the pot holes nearly breaks your arms.

 

[The Godfather]

Bucks anounced yesterday the grit stocks where low and was only gritting "major routes" , this happened last year as well ! ! ! . IMHO its because we have got used to mild winters so the councils havent been buying as much grit as they was say 20 years ago.But now those winters of 20 years ago seem to be making a come back we are struggling, this coupled with people being taught how to pass a driving test rather than how to drive, and our lack of snow driving experience due to said mild winters is a receipe for disaster. Proof in point watching a gent in his flash BMW earlier trying to reverse in the car park near me today, revs for to high the more his wheels span the higher he reved , and then looked shocked as all he did was slide sideways towards a car next to him ! !

Now people are complaining about the schools being shut to much ! ! ! WE (the worlds population) are the ones to blame for this, in this day of blame coulter , is it not possible to sue a school should your child slip on ice in the play ground and break a leg ? Is this why schools are having to be extra cautious ?

Who knows, maybe its just another issue of the world gone mad ! !

Agree.

Don & His Boys

 

[tom1]

well do u expect money for grit , road repair, nhs and school improvements when we have got moat cleanings, second homes, bank bailing out, prisoners tv, heating, food, benefits for jobless when jobs are avalible to pay for.

 

[green-hornet]

I have spent many a winter month in Bavaria where every road is ploughed every half hour.

Driving never appeared to be a problem, only the minus temps effecting the starting of engines etc.

In this country we seem to have the same problems every year, and we only have a little snow.

Then again I am old enough to remember the last time I cried when the snow was really deep, and that was 1966, I was trogged to school in two feet of freezing snow, no H&S in them years, and I can feel that pain to this day

 

[batty]

I have spent many a winter month in Bavaria where every road is ploughed every half hour.Driving never appeared to be a problem, only the minus temps effecting the starting of engines etc.

In this country we seem to have the same problems every year, and we only have a little snow.

Then again I am old enough to remember the last time I cried when the snow was really deep, and that was 1966, I was trogged to school in two feet of freezing snow, no H&S in them years, and I can feel that pain to this day

Apparently 1963 was a bad year which was the year I was born.

 

[bengie]

you don't see gritters because they do most of the gritting when the roads are quite to stop the grit getting carried away instantly, they tend to grit either very early or very late(between 9pm and 7am is most common).

as someone that is involved in all of this(snow clearing, flood works, gritting etc) I can clearly see that none of you understand the amount of effort, time and man power that goes into trying to sort these things and tbh i didn't until i was involved with it.

this week during the heavy snow in oxford we stopped all routine repairs to only do emergency works and everyone that wasn't on emergency works was out clearing paths/stairs/carparks in council area's concentrating on areas with elderly tenants and young children as well as upping the number of employees on the night time callout service to make sure that we could keep up with demand.

the biggest problem by a long long way in weather like this is people not knowing how to deal with it properly, thats walking, driving and just general life. The same people then as already mentioned above look for someone to blame as not only are they incapable of taking responsibility but they are unable to see that they have even done wrong in the first place.

during an evening on call this week we had to go out 3 up in a 4x4 as the vans weren't able to get around some area's and as the duty officer was driving i had to take the calls from the public and oh my god some people are amazing! I had one lady demanding that I did something as she went outside to see how slippery it was and fell over, on her own path. another tenant wanted us to get upto her gutter and remove a piece of plastic from the telephone line that someone had thrown up there as it was banging on her window, she lived in a top floor flat of a 3 storey block of flats. all this with between 10 and 20 inches of snow on the ground.

obviously i can't speak for other area's only for what we have and what we are doing but our gritters are fitted with plows in weather like this and they are doing 4 gritting runs a day(i think the times are 5am, 8am, 7pm and midnight) possibly more.

 

[green-hornet]

bengie I think everyone would agree the council workers who man the gritters, and all the others do a fantastic job given the tools they have at their disposal.I cetainly have no complaints against any of them.

My complaint if any would be against those in the know who refuse to dish out help and support, it amazes me and I would bet it amazes some of the countries around the world, that as little as 2 inches of snow can bring this country to a virtual standstill.

It has nothing to do with salt supplies, few snow bound countries use it!

Driving in snow is easy, with the correct tyre tread, driving experiance and the help of the friendly snow plough.

Some countries allow the use of snow chains, and the last time I drove in parts of northern Italy they insisted that you had them, yet others will not allow them because of the damage they can cause.

Strange that with such little snow in comparison to other nations we are always snow bound, and follow the same argument year in year out.

If the weather is the highlight of every news cast then we are indeed a very sad nation.

 

[Apache]

I do agree with much of this thread - even Lurch

All the gritters around here are fitted with snowploughs. They seem to bring in some JCB Fastracks to clear the moor roads with huge ploughs and snow blowers.

To be fair I live in a rural area. There's less than 200 people in my village but I have got to work everyday. I could have done so driving carefully in a 2 wheel drive car.

I think the council have done a bloody good job keeping things clear despite 8-12 inches of snow and many feet over the moor roads.

I've been able to get to every single call I have had, although we have been quiet.

It all comes down to peoples inept driving IMO. Grit isn't the answer alone.

 

[NozSpark]

bengie I think everyone would agree the council workers who man the gritters, and all the others do a fantastic job given the tools they have at their disposal.I cetainly have no complaints against any of them.My complaint if any would be against those in the know who refuse to dish out help and support, it amazes me and I would bet it amazes some of the countries around the world, that as little as 2 inches of snow can bring this country to a virtual standstill.

It has nothing to do with salt supplies, few snow bound countries use it!

Driving in snow is easy, with the correct tyre tread, driving experiance and the help of the friendly snow plough.

Some countries allow the use of snow chains, and the last time I drove in parts of northern Italy they insisted that you had them, yet others will not allow them because of the damage they can cause.

Strange that with such little snow in comparison to other nations we are always snow bound, and follow the same argument year in year out.

If the weather is the highlight of every news cast then we are indeed a very sad nation.

I think "snow socks" are the new "chains"

 

[Apache]

I think "snow socks" are the new "chains"

Have you tried them Noz?

 

[androiduk2002]

The UK is just no good at dealing with snow ! ! For the goverment to spend as much as they should would be a huge waste of money as 15 years out of 20 the equipment would not be need, I agree with Andy surely it would be better to move the snow than to grit it constantly , maybe the answer is to bring all these kinds of works under the one governing body again ? IMHO a better multi purpose lorry maybe ? one that can change easily to rubbish collection , gritting, ploughing , and any other tasks , with most of these services being run by a differant companys surely it is impossable to make best use of these lorrys as they are brought in to do the jobs that that company does ? For example a fire engine , this is designed to deal not just fires but a variety of tasks,RTAs, enviromental incidents, water carrying, salvage, even animal rescue, horses for courses is the thrase I believe.

I understand that they are doing as much as they can with the resorces they have, but it could be better if it was better thought out and better planned as with alot of things.

When I was a child I can remember snow worse than we have at the present but it didnt cause as much trouble as this has I remember my dad walking to work in heavy snow and leaving early enough to get there on time, we have all become to relient on shops like tesco,asda to name a few rather than local shops that use local suppliers , we have all slipped into this blame coulter we live in, we have all become to self centred.

The UK cannot compete in the world market place, if we was able to put everything back to say 1960 prices/costs could we then compete would the UK be a better place as there would be more jobs, so more money in the goverment coffers would this help the UK to be a better place ? I dont know but it certainly is food for thought.

 

[NozSpark]

Have you tried them Noz?

Heard about them on some TV program, can't remember which:coat

No I haven't..... I only live 100 yards from the sea!!

but it has been snowing here and the estate roads aren't great..

 

[Apache]

IMHO a better multi purpose lorry maybe ? one that can change easily to rubbish collection , gritting, ploughing , and any other tasks , with most of these services being run by a differant companys surely it is impossable to make best use of these lorrys as they are brought in to do the jobs that that company does ? For example a fire engine , this is designed to deal not just fires but a variety of tasks,RTAs, enviromental incidents, water carrying, salvage, even animal rescue, horses for courses is the thrase I believe.

A gritter or dustbin lorry is a very different specialised animal. I'm all for sticking ploughs on ALL gritters, but most of their time they only grit because there's no snow.

I do disagree with the fire engine analagy. I think it's hugely wasteful that when the fire brigade go out to fit smoke alarms for little old ladies they take the sodding fire engine! When they went on strike and the army were covering they had the Green Goddesses but also Landrovers and trailers made up for specific purposes. They did a better job than some of the 'normal' fire brigades could. Also why duplicate the horse rescue hoist when it's maybe used once a month per county - centralise some services, streamline others.

I await a retained Fireman's response (Sparky999, Firebrad?)