Winchester has been gritted today for the first time since the snow fell! Badly gritted at that!

Yes , thats their normal course of action - react but rarely be pro-active , I am employed in one of the supplier industries to councils and it's just politics and bluffing at the top end , the smaller town councils rarely grit footpaths and community centre areas because if they do then they are liable if someone slips and injures themselves , if they do nothing then they have no liabilities , any injury is down to nature and/or the person injured. All part of the Health and Safety culture we have tied ourselves up in - ludicrous isn't it ?

A few years ago a major London borough failed to do any gritting at all (stalling for time)
before a major snowstorm and the area was paralysed , I believe they also made the operational mistake of sending out gritters with streetsweepers promptly behind them clearing away most of the useful grit , all down to different departments not talking to each other , you couldn't make it up.

Yeah and reports are saying its iced over again.
i live down at east meon between petersfield and west meon and its almost impossible to get in or out of the village.
No gritting lorrys have come at all local farmers have been clearing the roads just been out to see what its like and its letheal.
my dad is working nights at the southampton echo this week and is haveing to take a long way to and from work as no country roads have been grited.

and we have had several older residents in the village fall over and broken limbs because of the pavements.
the whole situation is discusting.

Firstly I'll stick up for Surrey or who ever looks after the 10 miles or so around Haslemere. Main roads are fine side roads not so good pavements not done.

Which roads should a council do first? I mean I could sit here and moan Haslemere wasn't done first how can a council do every road first>?

Shut the beep up, enjoy it whilst it lasts get up a little earlier drive to work slowly and put up. How the bloody hell is a council supposed to grit every road at the same time? We don't have enough snow to invest in the inferstructure to survive it or you would all be moaning the councils spend money on gritting lorries that never get used or piles of grit that gets washed away in the rain.

For the council snow is a loose / loose situation.

I for one am just glad they didn't mix it with molasses this year. Sure, it helped it stick to the roads better, it stuck to my windscreen too! Constantly washing the screen or couldn't see where I was going. Reckon it caused more accidents than it prevented!

i dont care if they grit where first as long as they do it and thats the problem that i see specially living in a rural area where not every one owns a 4x4. i would just apreciate some grit on the roads. there are 4 roads into are village we are at the bottom of a vally so what ever way you attempt to get out of the village its up and there all lanes so what if we have an emergency or run out of food and alike were screwed is what im saying. and my rant is at hampshire county council

well at least there's been some gritting then.

i've not seen any gritting at all.

i heard about the no gritting pavements thing, which is just nuts.
i mean lets just allow people to fall over, injure themselves and put the strain on the health service so that the council workers can either sit on their butts and do nothing or not take the blame for not doing it properly.

we have a nanny state when it suits them and a 'f**k em attitude when there's a responsibility.

nuts.

personally i like the slippy roads but thats another story

I live on a hill and that hasnt been gritted once since the start of this snowfall. The only reason it is passable is siply because of the traffic, some of which is busses, that churn the snow into slush and it disipates.

No paths have been done at all and being a hill I have seen people walking down it that have fallen over.

Motorways where good, but during the snow fall it was quite bad on thursday, it was building up. Ive seen plenty off gritters out.

Aparently we were supposed to have learnt the lesson of last time and be prepared. Duely the AA have lambasted the local goverment association about this claim.
The normal excuse seems to be its too expensive to kit out the uk for such occurences they are too rare. Now it is just me or did this happen back in februrary as well? Thats quite frequent if you as me and I expect with global warming this will become even more frequent.
I think its a false economy not to sepnd the money. Instead of investing in road clearing they are having to pay for healthcare of those injured. Everyone will have to pay more for insurance to cover the cost of accidents. Businesses have to pay for the lost revenue because nobody can get tot he shops or employees are stuck. The effects must cost the economy many billions over the duration.
So to summarise the local goverment dont spend the money they expect everybody else to pick up the cost instead.

Let me raise another thing, why not pass a law like the rest of the europe that says you need to have winter tires during certain weathers or parts of the year.
Aparently also snow chains are illegal in the UK (though I havent managed to confirm this yet). Funny that this is the case when in the alps it is illegal NOT to carry them (even in the summer)!. If that is the case why?

Errr...

There's one 200 yards from your front door...

Corner of Gloucester Crescent and Inverness Street

sssshhhh never let the truth get in the way of a good rant!

Plenty of grit on the road round my way Though it's not been put there by a grit spreader......... it's where water has got under badly bodged pot hole repairs, frozen and pushed the repair back out of the pothole
Not to mention that some of the cracks appearing on other stretches of road look quite cavenous, it's quite a slalom course out there.............. my next car may need a hover facility.

Or maybe to be a range rover? Oh wait we are not allowed to but those anymore becuase green campaigners dont like them apparently!

We have a small area of clear road. Unfortunatly it's because there is a water leak which is months old and nobody will take responsibility for it. Will be fun when it freezes.

Why do we pay council tax again? Hmm and road tax come to that.

So there's enough money to pay MPs for their fiddled expenses