• The Forums are now open to new registrations, adverts are also being de-tuned.

Local Council wasting my money

A

alanf

Active Member
Joined
May 11, 2009
Messages
77
Location
Stockton-on-Tees
Car
SLK 230
Today at 9 30 it was 6 celsius and i passed my first gritter of the year. A complete waste of money i think. Ive just checked and it is now +9 outside and a beautiful sunny day.Every year without fail there is a cockup here with the gritting teams getting it wrong. Last winter they got caught out bigstyle by the heavy snow that every one in the country knew was on it's way except them and caused gridlock.I just know this will happen again soon as they are completely inept. Rant over.

Alan:wallbash:
 
It might have been a test run. I know of a private company who has taken over the road maintenance contract, and who will be gritting roads for the first time ever as a company - they normally surface roads rather than sprinkle them!!. They have a trial any time now.

PS It's not Stockton though. :D
 
alanf said:
Today at 9 30 it was 6 celsius and i passed my first gritter of the year. A complete waste of money i think. Ive just checked and it is now +9 outside and a beautiful sunny day.
Click to expand...

Our council seems to salt specific road sections on the slightest drop in temperature.

It's a pity they didn't make sure that road markings were kept visible and that potholes were repaired so dilligently.
 
It's now 10.5 celsius here and starting to rain. Strangely enough that's what the forecast was this morning. So now the salt is getting washed down the drain along with my cash.

Alan
 
I passed 2 gritters today on my little drive (pics/write up tomorrow) today. One of them had a massive plough on the front :eek:
 
With it being a Saturday would the drivers have been on overtime.:wallbash:

Could have just been the mechanics giving the rigs a test I suppose after the vehicles have been laid up for the summer.

Driver training for new crews or refresher training for experienced crews after not piloting such beasts for a while:dk:
 
Bobby Dazzler said:
It might have been a test run. I know of a private company who has taken over the road maintenance contract, and who will be gritting roads for the first time ever as a company - they normally surface roads rather than sprinkle them!!. They have a trial any time now. :D
Click to expand...

Watch Out! Flying Tarmac About! :D
 
The gritting equipment operators in these parts seem to have latched onto the fact that smaller grade material is less damaging to cars.

The quite fine grit they have used in the last couple of years has been a welcome change from the housebrick-sized ordnance previously deployed! Less likelihood of your car emerging from an overtake looking like that poor Rolls Royce in the Gumball Rally!!
 
A frost was forecast for this weekend?

How fast would you have been on here if it went that way and you'd slipped on your way to work?

There's plenty to hate councils for (including the 3rd world roads we are expected to use) but I'd rather they gritted more than less.
 
Cold and frosty in Cumbria this morning, nice and cold. No evidence of grit or gritters:)
 
Gridlock said:
A frost was forecast for this weekend?

How fast would you have been on here if it went that way and you'd slipped on your way to work?
Click to expand...

There is a balance. I think that given the number of times I've seen them grit in the last two years when the forecast doesn't require it on balance I think they're unecessarily overdoing it.

As an ex-biker I reckon the stuff is lethal on the roads when they grit and the stuff turns to paste. So they're exchanging one risk for another. At least as a biker I could figure it was frosty/icy and avoid the roads when the temperatures were low. If they put down slippy stuff when the temperatures are higher then I would be caught.

Gut feel says that the increased gritting is down to liability paranoia rather than actual pragmatism. And that's not a good reason.
 
A frost wasn't forecast here. I saw the weather on TV not long before i passed the gritter and it said rain which is what we got, a bit in the afternoon and torrential most of the night.

Alan
 
Our council just spent 259k redeveloping their website.... yet they are cutting services!
 
trapperjohn said:
Could have just been the mechanics giving the rigs a test I suppose after the vehicles have been laid up for the summer.

Driver training for new crews or refresher training for experienced crews after not piloting such beasts for a while:dk:
Click to expand...


I have been doing just this with my works gritter & Shunters this week.

Firstly find the Key!!!
 
Seamster15 said:
Our council just spent 259k redeveloping their website.... yet they are cutting services!
Click to expand...

I can't see how it is possible to spend that much !! I doubt the 1st version of eBay cost that :-)

I hope its not the current Guildford Borough Council - home site - look at their 'online payment system' https://www.guildford.gov.uk/payments/newpay.asp
that clearly doesnt interface with any back end systems at all and doesnt match anything else. Assuming there is a new site going to appear, I can see why they wanted to update the site - it looks like a very cheap database backed information only site -

R
 
you put grit down before the ice and it prevents it, putting grip down when the ice is already there is pointless as salt doesn't melt ice it only stops more from forming.
 
davethemus said:
you put grit down before the ice and it prevents it, putting grip down when the ice is already there is pointless as salt doesn't melt ice it only stops more from forming.
Click to expand...

Hmmm - always seems to melt the ice on my path when I put salt on it...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Similar threads

M
A Full on G-Techniq/Paint Correction Detail
Replies
11
Views
2K
mikec32
M
Back
Top Bottom