On 26/12/2011 00:48, Frank Erskine wrote:
On Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:08:03 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:
In ,
"David WE writes:
In our avenue someone has organised with the Council to supply one of those
yellow road salt/grit bins which allow you to grit paths, drives, the roads,
your neighbours garden which has always irritated you etc.
Quite a good deal (we think).
The residents pay for the bin, then the Council keep it filled at no extra
charge.
Cost us £9 for our contribution, so certainly worth a punt.
Chain the thing down to an immovable object if at all possible.
I mention it here because
(a) It seesm like a good idea if you have problems with local icy conditions
and the gritting lorries ignoring you
(b) Because you have to do it yourself - both buying the bin and spreading
the salt/grit :-)
Lots of councils have stopped doing them, after large numbers were
stolen (and/or the contents were stolen) over last two years.
Our local council places these each winter(ish) at strategic points,
such as near to steep banks and similar hazardous bits. Probably due
to cutbacks in spending they've left them there since last winter.
There is a score card that determines which situations require the
County Council to provide a grit bin. Round here now in practice it
requires a busy steep hill with a blind bend and a junction to qualify.
Local councils can obtain them and pay to have them filled once or twice
during the winter season but it is expensive, and scrotes come round
with a wagon and pinch them all from time to time.
The main problem is that some people seem to regard this as a free
source of grit/salt/whatever_it_is for their own driveways rather than
what it's intended for, viz. the public highway (footways and
carriageway); as soon as the bin is replenished they're out with a
sledge and buckets to steal the precious stuff to meticulously clear
every bit of their property of snow/ice/frost.
Waiting to see if that will be a problem here. I suspect that complete
outsiders on a flat bed pinching the entire unit is more of a problem.
We have one county council bin and two parish council ones.
A couple of years ago when there was a serious shortage of salt the LA
used road planings. Although they did little to melt the ice they did
help to improve traction a bit.
They just gave up round here and we got an amazing pompous email titled
"Letter from the Leader" telling us what a good job they were doing. It
didn't go down at all well with 1" of polished pack ice on the road
though our neighbouring village and no salt anywhere to be seen.
Regards,
Martin Brown