Despite everyone here in Bristol I've spoken to complaining that none of the roads have been gritted (as it was blatantly obvious this morning that they hadn't been), in a manner worthy of Chinese State Television the Council are claiming that no, we're all wrong, and in fact:
All major routes were gritted three times overnight on Sunday and will be gritted again tonight. 80 tonnes of grit were used last night to deal with the freezing ice and snow conditions, compared to the 20 tonnes of grit we use on a normal night.
I'm sorry, but this is clearly bollocks. On the most major roads (which the council describes as "All 'A' roads, public transport routes and major residential roads" I've been on this morning like the A38 there wasn't a speck of grit, and it's clear that it hadn't been gritted since it started snowing about 10pm on Sunday. And what the fuck is all of this "4 times as much grit used" business? Presumably they only grit the roads at all if there's a chance of ice, and it's clear every road I drove on, and every road everyone I've spoken to has been on, was not gritted this morning.
Two vehicles are working in the day to deal with specific problems on the main routes.
I'd wager this is really the only gritting that's happened since this snow, and explains why some roads have since been gritted, although most have just turned slushy due to the volume of traffic, which will then freeze tonight, may not be gritted again, and then we'll really have carnage!
9 comments:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it...
The BCC press release reminds me of this despite the evidence to the contrary. Like you, I didn't come across a road that was gritted, nor did anyone else I know.
Might be worth a FOI request to get the usage logs for the gritting trucks.
So this is why someone who had managed to travel all the way from Dursley this morning was turned around by police and told to go home rather then be allowed into Greystoke Avenue in order to get to work. When oh when are we going to see the back of the useless Jandroid ?
I thought the AA were being rather clever last week by stating that there was not enough provision for gritting. Either they would be proved right, or, they would annoy councils who would make damn sure that they did grit the roads, then stick two fingers up at the AA accusing them of scaremongering, which the AA wouldn't care less about because the roads got gritted.
Unfortunately it looks like the first scenario is what has happened. The biggest embarrassment of all has to lie with Hampshire as the entire town of Basingstoke has been cut off since about 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Where is the HQ of the AA?
I live on a street with buses timetabled every 10 minutes in each direction.* Sunday night, everything was very very quiet. Monday morning, the road was barely drivable - so I stayed home, and can definitely say that no gritters were sighted. The first gritter came past at around 8pm Monday evening, by which time the road had been mostly clear again for several hours.
* whether they turn up is another matter, of course, but that's not the point here.
Moose:
They were definitely proved right in this case. In fairness to them, the weather appears to have been all to cock recently and maybe they couldn't have predicted the snow. Fair enough.
It's the lying about it afterwards I can't stand, and it's so fucking typical of Jandroid's leadership style. She appears to believe that problems can be fixed simply by telling people really how great they are, rather than actually fixing them.
She also couches it all in her appalling management speak. She speaks of journies, structures, shaping, transformations, driving performance, challenges etc. ad nauseum. Pity she can't quite seem to manage truth, integrity, service or many other rather old fashioned words.
What's a "major residential road"? as opposed to a "smaller residential street"?
No doubt Jan and Transport boss Bishop live on a "major residential road" while we all live on a "smaller residential street"
The council are talking bollocks! Here in Hartcliffe the ONLY roads that got gritted were the bus routes. Hareclive road, and Bishport ave were the only roads that saw any grit.
If you take into consideration that almost every street in between is on a slope, driving around has been an absolute nightmare.
Cotham Brow, Horfield Road, Cotham Road, all gritted by 9pm sunday evening -before the snow began. All bus routes.
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