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 Post subject: Re: Snow Ploughs
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:39 
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Oh don't get me wrong I agree, of course it is sensible, but at this time the bins are for the roadway ...
I do think that the bins should be located in every street (where-ever appropriate) and used for everyone's path and pavement.
The recent encouragement to clear the path to help everyone is a good moral and practical move, but I can't see everyone affording the salt - it is expensive and expensive to go to even get in some cases.
I cleared some of my entrance the other day then overnight the road melted sections drained onto the cleared bit leaving a patchy ice rink! Happily I rarely have people walk by so it is only cars that use it as a passing place so not much of an issue, but what if I lived only a lightly busier road ?
It will take the Council support to supply all households with ad-lib salt supplies before our efforts can be fully utilised.

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 Post subject: Re: Snow Ploughs
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:47 
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dcbwhaley wrote:
Pedestrians are quite likely to be badly injure trying to negotiate frozen pavements.


Not as badly injured as they're likely to be if hit by an out-of-control bus sliding off an icy road

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 Post subject: Re: Snow Ploughs
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 14:27 
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Fracture injuries are immensely 'up' during this icy period.
So what can we do to try and be more responsible and learn how to cope ?
There are various techniques for footwear - like snow boots, 'snow chains for footwear, crimpons etc for shoes.
It is recognising how easy it is to loose balance and to invest in helpful products that can help.

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 Post subject: Re: Snow Ploughs
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 14:32 
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Pete317 wrote:
dcbwhaley wrote:
Pedestrians are quite likely to be badly injure trying to negotiate frozen pavements.


Not as badly injured as they're likely to be if hit by an out-of-control bus sliding off an icy road


Which is why both road and pavement should be given equal attention. When I taxed a local Highways official about this he said that they saw their job as keeping traffic flowing, not preserving the safety of pedestrians. That does smack of un-joined-up thinking to me.

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 Post subject: Re: Snow Ploughs
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 18:31 
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dcbwhaley wrote:
SafeSpeedv2 wrote:
Pinching the bin would be a theft against the Council. Taking salt for your own drive is not correct - although I now think that there ought to be bins or deliveries to each residential area ...


If a shovelful of grit on a residential drive prevents an old person from falling over and breaking a femur then it is money well spent in both financial and human terms. The , very prevalent, idea that it is much more important to clear the snow from the carriage ways than the pavements - that residents should clear their own pavement whist public money is spent on clearing the road - is quite reprehensible. Pedestrians are quite likely to be badly injure trying to negotiate frozen pavements.

But it's not old people that turn up in cars and empty the grit bins to salt their driveways - it's people who are young and fit AND in gainful employment... well gainful enough to think they have a right to help themselves to the salt to help them on their way to work!
I have asked several elderly friends if they wanted taking into town for shopping, or their driveway clearing and all have told me that they are well supplied by neighbours, and have little desire to go out in the cold.

dcbwhaley wrote:
Perhaps the NHS, rather than the Council, should be responsible for clearing snow since they pick up the bill for failure to do it properly.

As an organisation whose employees (at the "sharp end") are renowned for their caring attitude, then they would probably make a better job than most councils whose officials and employees simply say in most instances... "we are not legally obliged to do that..."

My Town Council are looking at providing two salt spreaders to salt pavements in Windermere and Bowness, at a cost of £1000 each. The salt and manpower are another matter - the likelihood is that the machines will be pushed around by volunteers, and we will have to beg for salt from the county council as we have no depot to store it in.
At present, they release salt to us in paltry amounts just as the snow and ice begin to thaw! :headbash:

The county council have a schedule of gritting - primary routes first, then secondary routes, and finally local roads.
In practice as soon as there is continuous snow, they just keep doing the primary routes over and over, because they closed down many of the local gritting depots and have to travel huge distances to refill the wagons - by which time their earlier efforts have been covered over with fresh snow! :loco:

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 Post subject: Re: Snow Ploughs
PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 23:12 
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Ernest Marsh wrote:
But it's not old people that turn up in cars and empty the grit bins to salt their driveways - it's people who are young and fit AND in gainful employment... well gainful enough to think they have a right to help themselves to the salt to help them on their way to work!


I suppose that they could argue that, as they have paid for the grit they are entitled to make use of it.

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