Road gritting? Who's responsibility?

redddraggon

Isn't the council supposed to grit the roads when it's going to be icy? The council haven't bothered here, the roads are death traps. I've seen a good few near misses with cars and vans through the window that I can't really risk going on the bike. There's been loads of (black) ice around here for over 5 days now, so it's not as though the ice has caught them out.

Perhaps I'd be able to get out on my bike if they actually gritted the roads :?

rikk

From what I understand a lot of councils have stopped as if they grit and someone crashes on any ice left or because of the grit they can be sued where as if they do nothing.....no one can sue them.
This also goes for shopkeepers and outside peoples houses.

alex16zx

Well I guess it is the council's responsibility...here all my roads were gritted except for my road which is very small and not deemed worthy of it. Which is probably fair enough, it's a cul-de-sac with about 20 houses.

Stewie Griffin

Apparently we should be doing it ourselves.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoe ... rself.html

Unless you live in N Wales where the sheep eat it.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2181287.html

My local Authority has a list of the Roads that they grit on its website. 324 Roads, inc all red routes, "other main routes", Hills, Major bus routes, roads outside Hospitals & Schools & "priority routes", which I guess means other busy roads. For some weird reason they also grit the access road to our National Stadium.

Edit; Its cold but not icey this morning here so I cant say whether or not the roads were but the pavement on the main road was certainly gritted.

iain_j

rikk wrote:

From what I understand a lot of councils have stopped as if they grit and someone crashes on any ice left or because of the grit they can be sued where as if they do nothing.....no one can sue them.
This also goes for shopkeepers and outside peoples houses.

I can understand that in this age of compensation, but it's still ridiculous. Rather than face getting sued for one icy patch they missed they'd rather leave the whole road icy? "If they do nothing no one can sue them"? What kind of logic is that? Don't they have a responsibility to keep the roads safe?

robbarker

In general the council grit bus routes but not other roads.

They did bring out a grit bin to our (steep) lane when I phoned them up and asked a couple of years ago, and it gets filled regularly, so I just go out with a shovel and do it myself when it's icy.

boybiker

You are lucky I had a gritting lorry overtake me last night and I got gritted myself as it went past and its pretty nasty when you get sprayed by grit.

OffTheBackAdam

South Kesteven grit the bus routes around here and that's it.
I suspect for major roads, the County Coucils have responsibility.
We'll have to get used to the return of icy winters, a combination of a quiet sun and the reversal of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (A 20-30 year cycle) have lead to a marked drop in mean global temperatures.

lateralus

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

South Kesteven grit the bus routes around here and that's it.
I suspect for major roads, the County Coucils have responsibility.
We'll have to get used to the return of icy winters, a combination of a quiet sun and the reversal of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (A 20-30 year cycle) have lead to a marked drop in mean global temperatures.

Not according to the Met Office: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/p ... 81230.html

Anonymous

Other day it seemed icy, my dad drove me back from York and about a mile from home near my village there was a vauxhall on it's side and like 3 ambulances, loads of cars parked and loads of police and also normal parked cars, you'd have though someone was dead by the amount, it was on a corner and probably caused by ice, same thing happend to my dad and he wrote the car off in winter 2007 due to ice.

I wanted to go test my LD20 light tonight but the ice did not melt and now it's still out there and I dont want to fall off, hopefully tomorrow will be better but it's -4 again tonight!

Le Commentateur

"If they do nothing no one can sue them"? What kind of logic is that?

Aren't they supposed to be providing services for the local community anymore then?

Looks like we are dependent on there being competent communication between various bodies including the police and local councils, but even if this occurs it may be ineffective if people behave as if the road conditions are 'normal', i.e. drive too fast, or be out on the roads at all.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/6247184.stm

(Almost exactly 3 years ago...)

OffTheBackAdam

lateralus wrote:

Not according to the Met Office: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/p ... 81230.html

That's this lot?
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/seasonal/winter2008_9/europe.html
"Probability that winter temperatures will be above/below average.

Temperatures are more likely to be above 1971-2000 averages over northern Europe and parts of southern and eastern Europe"

lateralus

:roll:

as this is Cake Stop, and OT, I can't be bothered...

beverick

Unless things have changed substantially in the last three years, responsibility to 'grit' roads lies with the relevant highway authority. However, there never used to be a statutory requirement for any authority to treat roads for the remove of ice.

For motorways and 'trunk' roads this is the Highways Agency and for all other 'adopted' roads it is usually the relevant local Council - in England and Wales at least. Unadopted roads are the responsibility of the road's owner.

For adopted roads, the gritting may be carried out by private contractors (especially on motorways and trunk roads where maintenance has been contracted to a management company - the M6 link for example).

Roads are gritted in line with priorities agreed between the responsible authority and the Dft. The materials are paid for by the relevant authority up to an agreed level after which additional 'foul weather' payments are triggered and the treasury picks up the tab. This used to be through the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister when we had one (I think!) but it's now probably the department for Communities and Local Government.

Bus and major arterial routes are indeed highest priority and will be treated when the air temperature drops below 3 or 4 degrees centigrade depending on the authority.

Secondary roads will be treated, again on priority, as the temperature drops towards or below freezing. Lower priority roads will only be gritted immediately prior to, during or after snowfall. Many roads, such as those on estates,may never be gritted at all.

It's also quite possible that certain roads will be treated several times per day whereas others,if they are treated, will only be gritted after snow has been present for several days.

Bob