Took the other half to work at 08 15 this morning, drove right across Blackpool. No evidence of gritting at all, zero. Local radio reporting numerous shunts on M55 and local roads.
Roads were basically a skating ring, what is happening with local councils.
Lack of funds or just dont read weather reports.
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I suspect the former. Same where I live. Glossop North West Derbyshire. No sign of gritting.
So many cutbacks. Where I work we've just had a message from our MD which reads: ' Due to the present economic situation the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off'.
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In Cornwall ..Gritters out Monday evening....
problem is they should be sponsored by chip repair companies as they are travelling in Dark conditions at 50 - 60 mph with no flashing lights and gritting at the same time, only when you come to overtake them (Dual carriageway) and go through the shower of chippings do you realise they are gritting.
I thought they had to have flashing hazard lights on when gritting?
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Gritters [..] should be sponsored by chip repair companies
I have wondered whether an insurance claim against the council for damage caused by gritting would be worthwhile.
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ok , let them crash tinyurl.com/5nzxaf
Then grit the road , this was at lunchtime , not 7 am
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I live in Southport which, as the crow flies, is only just under nine miles from Blackpool and the gritters were out on Monday night doing the bus routes.
The forecast must have been quite harsh to warrant gritting as it's rare to get conditions bad enough in our area.
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I was at blundlesands (liverpool) on tuesday morn at 10.00 , coming down the m6 and 58 , apart from rain it was ok , but cold , very cold.
last sun night / mon morning i slept in my car for 4 hrs in a cark park in ashford in kent ,,, it was a lot warmer last week
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I live in Southport ... and the gritters were out on Monday night doing the bus routes.
But you don't get ice in Southport - too much salt in the atmosphere.
?
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>>I have wondered whether an insurance claim against the council for damage caused by gritting would be worthwhile.
Absolutely. You'll get £100 against your chipsaway repair.
And then they'll stop gritting.
And then you'll kill yourself when you come off the road.
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>>I have wondered whether an insurance claim against the council for damage caused by gritting would be worthwhile. Absolutely. You'll get £100 against your chipsaway repair.
Good that they'll pay, but it's not ot necessarily just chipped paint. I have seen lumps of stuff coming out of salt lorries.
And then they'll stop gritting.
Rubbish.
And then you'll kill yourself when you come off the road.
Also rubbish. As a police friend said to me one day, at a crash, "They can see the frost when they come out and scrape the car windows, but they *still* drive like *this*!". Rightly said - it's idiots who take no account of conditions that cause the biggest problems.
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>only when you come to overtake them (Dual carriageway) and go through the shower of >chippings do you realise they are gritting
what? what do you guys use for lights on your tractors down there in cornwall - candles?
The rest of us emmets and grockles use electric bulbs on our cars and can see the clouds of salt whizzing from the back.
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A good thick sprinkling of salt on the road can be very slippery in itself, whether there is any ice or not. It takes a while to work and seems to form a sort of sandy slush.
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I skidded while braking on a thick layer of salt that they'd put on the (dry) road "just in case".
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They didn't grit roads in my area yesterday because the wagon had a flat battery. Yep, no one had the wits are equipment to jump start it and send it out. Now how much was that VED again? How much was my council tax ? How much is fuel duty ?
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They didn't grit roads in my area yesterday because the wagon had a flat battery.
Do you seriously expect us to believe that they've only got one?
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Based on the evidence of my own eyes they do have more than one but presume that each gritter is allocated a route. Having been in to the council depot concerned at various times in the year, I have only ever seen two such wagons in the area where the salt is kept. Believe what you like.
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Fairly good in the land of Hawkeye :
www.northyorks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3270
Currently working like beavers - 5" on the white stuff but starting to abate thank goodness .
dvd
Edited by Webmaster on 05/12/2008 at 00:38
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very little gritting up here in Teesside. I havent seen a gritter all week and driven over 400 miles so far - its been sub temperature at night and even with the forecast of snow today they werent out.
It took me 4 hours to get to work this morning because the roads were so bad - madness.
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Captain Chaos experienced Major Mayhem this morning trying to get into Kendal. One chap in the know said that apparently they'd run out of salt
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I expect the route was peppered with accidents then ?
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Correct me if I am wrong, but I am sure local councils/highways agency have no legal obligations to grit at all.
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Just before it went dark this PM I was outside pottering with the cars. Topping up screenwash, checking tyre pressures and oil and so on.
My next door neighbour, a german chap who lives here was doing much the same. The difference was that he was also swopping the smart alloy wheels on his cars for steel ones with winter tyres.
He is a senior manager with Bentley posted over here from Wolfsburg. A man who knows his cars quite well.
Chatting about the winter tyre thing it emerged that he really firmly believes in the benefit even in our normally less severe winters. In addition, and to return to the main subject of the thread, he just prefers not to expose his posh wheels to the rigours of salt and grit.
I was brought up in Scotland although I no longer live there. In the 60s my Dad always put winter tyres on his cars. Few Brits seem to do that now.
I would, I admit, feel a bit reluctant to spend even more money on extra tyres but I suppose once you have them they would probably last a few years provided you didn't change to a car they wouldn't fit.
Around here, the main roads are normally kept clear of snow and ice but they do get caught out as on Wednesday this week when it got very slippy. Not sure whether winter tyres would have increased the "skills" of local drivers mind. Some of them were driving as if nothing was different with the predictable bent metal results.
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The roads were so bad traffic was at a standstill. One or two minor low speed bumps, sliding into kerbs and the like. A traffic cop suggested we turn back but we persevered, parking up and walking/slipping down the hill into town. I was surprised to see quite a few elderly people out and about with walking sticks in such treacherous conditions.....madness.
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I was surprised to see quite a few elderly people out and about with walking sticks in such treacherous conditions.....madness.
they were being sponsered by the NHS , to be donors
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No sign of gritters here in Oxford but a nice sheen of ice on the roads. Watched a car driven by a young woman nearly plough straight into a row of houses after she went round a shallow corner way above the speed limit and almost lost control. Fortunately the car just missed the edge of the pavement.
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