Why are councils not gritting roads or pavements

[Springswallow]

I remember in the 70s seeing the gritter out at the first sniff of snow or ice
Every time I've gone out the last few days someone has slipped over
Twice an ambulance was called to local Tesco , because someone slipped over and hurt themselves
Tesco customer service told me ,it's their policy to not grit Tesco paths or roads , because that means they are taking responsibility,and if someone slips they could sue them ..
But our town is an ice rink as well ,so the council are not gritting either
Madness

Gritters here

I'm not sure who is responsible for gritting supermarket carparks but our Waitrose car park is always well gritted at the slightest sniff of any ice so I like to shop there

Tesco car park is private land, so the council would have no business gritting there anyway.
Agreed @ItsPronouncedThroatwobblerMangrove

One of my DC’s works for a company who have the contract for gritting Aldi car parks and pavements. Drivers are out during the night/very early morning.

Ours is a lib dem council ,I don't know if that makes a difference
But lots of people complaining on line about driving to town and not being able to get out of their car when when they got there
As for gritting ourselves,there is no grit bin anywhere near
Is salt any better does anyone know ?
I'd be worried my neighbour would complain if grit I buy and put down ,goes on his perfect drive

I was a victim on the ice today crossed a road walking to work and two steps in black ice had me flat on my back in agony. Ambulance and fracture to my coccyx and lower back.

Because most councils are incompetent and lazy.

Oh you poor thing ,I'm so sorry

We get path salt from Asda in big bag, well we did last year, some supermarkets sell it and places like B&Q, we haven't got any this year as still got some.

They no longer fill the grit bins. Instead, they want local residents to agree to become 'snow friends', and they will then deliver grit/salt to those people (or team of people), so that they can treat paths etc. They've delegated it, basically.

There is no obligation to grit. Also, you clearly have no idea of the resource to grit even main roads. There isn't a bottomless pit of money...

Gritting costs money which councils don’t have. However councils do grit using information from weather reports. Overgritting can damage wildlife and is not environmentally friendly but not gritting means that people fall over and if elderly may end up needing care so cost may come to the council that way. The issue is more costly and complex than most people imagine.

We have grit bins - still no body grits - it’s always someone else’s job.

I saw abandoned cars next to grit bins and still they don’t help themselves.

If everyone did a bit, small bucket and a children spade has the path and road done in 5 minutes

Town was all gritted last night. My daughter said people were falling and crawling all over the ice on the way to school yesterday morning. She said one lad took one foot off the bus and fell straight off it. 😆

The "grit" they are spreading on the roads is salt (rock salt) which dissolves and forms a solution which lowers the freezing point of the water. So yes, any salt will do but obviously your kitchen salt will run out quickly. You can buy bags/tubs of deicing salt from Halfords, B&Q Amazon etc.

I’m in Scotland and council are gritting. Went out yesterday though and there were three cars that had crashed on a 9 mile stretch of road between me and the town. Pavements had been done in town. I used to work for the council and the pavement gritters were driven by the people who drive the big lawnmowers / tractors in the summer. There’s been a lot of cutbacks there as they no longer cut as much grass leaving big patches as borders and under trees. There’s less of these staff in the winter to grit and often they are used as a cover as loaders (on the bin lorries) The road gritters are part of another team.

Grit is salty (though not the same as table salt), the whole point being that it has a low freezing temperature and will stop any further ice from forming. The downside is that it causes a lot of corrosion on the undercarriage of vehicles. You kind of have to weigh out skidding off the road with the undercarriage rotting out.

Edited for getting my opposites confused.

Grit is expensive and they have to prioritise the main roads. They’re also very reliant on weather reports which are notoriously inaccurate!

I’m in rural Cumbria and we get cut off multiple times a year because roads either haven’t been gritted, or the grit has been washed away and the roads then turn to black ice. On Sunday there was a jackknifed lorry and multiple accidents on the only 2 mile stretch of road out of town to the south.

They haven’t done any near me!!! They never ever do our road. Sheffield council are crap at gritting.

No, just very short if money due to Conservative government budget cuts.

As a nation we are busy moaning about tax rises - we can't have it both ways - have shared public services and nothing to pay for them with.

Exactly council tax needs to go up on larger houses. They have had it easy for too long.

I mean, even if councils don’t fill grit bins (they should but if yours is anything like mine city councillors dont give a shit about the plebs who walk) you can totally use salt. Even regular salt. If every person just walked out their front door and chucked some salt down on the bit of pavement outside their house it wouldn’t take long (or much salt).
No need for WhatsApp groups or snow buddies (why does everything have to be a thing now?!) just basic common sense and neighbourliness.
It truly drives me mad every winter, in the cold and hilly place I live, that no one seems to have have any sense of community responsibility anymore. Let’s change it!

Because central government prefers to spend fortunes on wars, lockdowns, pay rises for themselves, booze, Truss and Johnson’s pensions, and meddling in other countries, instead of looking after our own.

I was the second car behind a gritter a few days ago on my way to work and the car in front of me overtook the gritter. I'm still baffled why you'd want to be in front of the gritter in this weather rather than safely behind it.

We clear the path outside our house.

But have been warned if people slip on the gritted part they can sue you.

It's difficult.

I've seen gritters out overnight.

But yesterday I think the rain washed the grit away so the roads were really bad.

We have a grit bin on our road as it isn't a main route. Use it regularly. And when it's empty there is a Web page to contact the council who will refill it.

You can get sued if someone slips because you cleared a path.