to be disappointed in my neighbours (snow)

[NorthernLurker]

So we have some snow. Not all that much but enough to make the pavements etc tricky. First thing this morning I cleared the front of our drive and salted it so I could take dd1 to work. Then I came back, took other dds sledging and then cleared the pavement from our house up to the corner. I did this stretch because otherwise it never gets done and as that side faces North it takes an age to melt and makes getting out in the morning (I cycle) a bit scary Fine, that's my effort to put in, not a problem. I also gritted it with our own personal grit and it's pretty good now. However a whole fine, not too cold day has passed and NONE of my neighbours has cleared so much as an inch otherwise. A family round the corner have done their bit and somebody else has cleared their drive and that's it. AIBU to be a bit annoyed about this. I know who lives in all the houses on our street. They are all able bodied. Two of my neighbours have watched me clearing the stuff and done nothing. Not even asked if they can borrow my shovel. There are lot of kids on the street and they've been rampaging playing all over meaning that lumps of ice etc have got chucked or kicked (looked like kicked tbh) on to the cleared path - meaning it had to be brushed again. The parents have done nothing to prevent this.

AIBU to feel it's a shame everybody hasn't pitched in? It would have been so easy to do this morning before it got trampled. Now of course it's packed down. I thought maybe I should do a bit more but tbh I'm quite tired now.

YANBU!

When it snowed before Christmas I was out shovelling snow in the rain. It was due to freeze that night, and sure enough next morning the uncleared walked on stretch was a sheet of solid ice. Nobody has that much pavement in front of the house. And if you only clear half of it there is snow on the other side for sledges.

You will not be sued if someone slips on some pavement you cleared, if everybody cleared their stretch of pavements and any elderly etc there would be a lot less broken hips.

SPB

I think that was my point . It is not terribly relevant to the snow thing because people obviously have different views about that but your point resonates. Your neighbours do some thing which you benefit from , you have done something which helps them. It isn't a contract , it is just trying to live in a nice environment and a nice community & over time people contribute what they do . Well , those who do , do. Those who don't , well that's life .
But I think I agree with you .

YABU. If it snowed here and I wasn't going out, then I wouldn't even think of going out and clearing the footpath. Council here legally owns the pavement which they are very fond of telling us, so if they want it cleared, then they can clear it, or give me a discount on my rates for the top hourly rate of work.

That said, where I live it never snows, and it if did, we'd all be standing on the footpath scratching our heads and wondering what the fluffy slushy white stuff was.

I've cleared my path and the pavement outside. I don't necessarily expect anyone else to do anything.

It's the law here as well. I am happy I do not have a sidewalk on my side of the street, as I don't even do the driveway anymore. Dh does it. Older people can have the city do it I think. We have barely had any snow this year, but when we do, we pile it on our lawn.

How strict is thi law then? How does it work?

Wouldn't occur to me to clear snow

And as for children messing it up, really?!

Over here, I´m not sure if you get fined/prosecuted for not clearing-but certainly would be in trouble if someone had an accident on an uncleared patch!

Think the main thing here might be just to make it easy for people to walk/bike/push pram...

Oh for goodness sake, lighten up! I've never cleared snow before and don't intend to start now. It soon melts in a day or two. If that means you don't use your car for a few days then so be it.

And snow if FUN for children btw.

YABU

I cleared the path yesterday and put salt down and now its very clear. Put snow onto my lawn. Neighbours from hell did theirs later on yesterday. Put their snow on my lawn too. Pathetic. I know it sounds petty and its only snow but why would you do this? Got a scruffy big pile in front of front window now which will take longer than rest. Weirdos.

What has using a car got to do with clearing the pavement?

My Dad is in his 80´s & uses a walking stick.

If pavements were cleared, he could get out & about.

He daren´t when there´s snow in case there´s a "hidden hazard" that trips him.

I guess is someone complains, they will warn you and give you so long to clear it? Or if someone slips and gets hurt you are liable. I am only guessing.

During the snow of 2010 when we had it from November to January we cleared our drive, pavement in front of house and road in front of drive as that's where DH parks and he was just wheel spinning when moving off - after about 6 weeks we started getting blocked in cos the neighbours try to get their front tyres on the cleared space so they could get away okay rather than trying to clear the snow and inch of ice under the snow in front of their house - cheeky fuckers

Not much point in clearing things to much here when we get proper snow as the council don't grit the main road (bus route) out of the road so we couldn't get anywhere anyway!

The past few days when we have had moderate snowfall people have cleared their own drives if they need to go out. We dont have any elderly or ill neighbours anymore but when we have had people have always cleared a path for them. Next door sent their son to clear the drive for me last year incase I needed to get DS to hopsital (he is asthmatic and snow is a trigger)

As for not wanting children to play in the snow that's just odd!

That's a very good point diddl and I'm sorry about your dad. Do you mean you expect pavements to be cleared by the council or the general public each doing their own bit?

I get annoyed by my neighbours clearing snow off the whole of the road. It's a caveman thing here where I am! It makes our street into a flipping ice rink especially as my neighbour has his brush and so probably we could take up curling on our street. The snow adds extra grip when driving so why bother. My hubby gets cross with it and he deals with emergency response. Plus it stops my kids from playing out in it. No logic to it at all especially cause the next street off our close is usually worse!

I don't clear any snow. I don't see the point, particularly as there is hardly any foot traffic on our pavements (and in fact we don't have pavemtabon our side of the road, so if have to cross over to find a pavement to clear!).

I would rather walk on snow and compacted snow than on the thin layer of ice that's left (or soon forms) when you clear snow before it warms up a bit. I have to bite my tongue about it as my DH is like you and would like to clear it all away - he clears the paths around our house, so I walk on the grass to avoid the slippy cleared paths!

Where I live residents have been turning out (not all admittedly) to dig out the street. We do have slopes and bends to contend with though.

Yabu. You are also being judgy.

Great that you are able to.

We usually do this but I'm laid up in bed with a virus so dh is looking after the kids and as we have a 2 yo liable to bolt off if he takes his eyes off him for a second has not done it yet.

Here we are supposed to do the pavement outside our own house before 8am.

There are certain areas that the council do-over a bridge into town, High Street, some dropped kerbs for example.

We've cleared outside ours but only because I dropped the keys somewhere and we couldn't find them .

But thanks for the thread I've gone from thinking "leave the snow alone killjoy" because we are on a quiet street to realising our street is quiet because we are in a retirement area and actually they are probably all stuck in because it's too slippy to get to the bus stop.

DH might not be thanking you when he gets up though as guess who's getting handed either the snow shovel or the baby to mind

We're the only people on our street who have cleared our drive and the pavement in front of our garden and drive... I did the clearing onto our front lawn while my DH and DS(4) and DD(2) made snowmen with the snow I cleared. Without that extra snow, we wouldn't have had enough for a snow baby!

I don´t think that people who can´t do it are being judged. When I see an uncleared bit, I know it´s often an elderly person for example.

But tbh I do feel at those who have gone off to work, thereby leaving it for the whole day.

How can thy force you to do it diddl? What if you start work really early? Or didn't finish a shift until 4am? Or are sick, disabled or caring for children? Besides any of that, they could get stuffed if they think I'm going out in the snow before 8am to shovel snow on a footpath I'm not even going to be using. If they want it cleared, they should pay people to do it properly..

Where do you live diddl? Are you in the UK? It's just not realistic for some people to clear their pavement before 8am and unless everyone does it, there's not much point is there? You would be limited to only walking where it's been cleared and that might not be very far!