Did councils used to grit and clear pavements?

[Edewibs]

We live in London and its been icy all week. Pavements around us have slowly changed from snow to ice and are now really dangerous especially as we live on a major road and on a hill. Dod councils used to clear pavements or am I imagining it? I can't imagine using them if I was in any way frail or elderly

where i am they only really do the main roads and main pavements

In 2010 the army was deployed in the centre of Edinburgh to try to hack away at the ice on the pavements. Scotland definitely deals with cold weather better than the south of England (understandably).

There’s no grit boxes where I live.

I remember it in a London borough in the 80's. There were fewer cars parked on the road, so when the men on the back of the slow-moving truck were shovelling the grit on the road, it would also go on the pavement. Also, people shovelled the snow in front of their houses.

The council used to grit all of the back residential roads, but as funding was cut, they stopped and only did the main roads.

Our town in NE Aberdeenshire has a man on a sit-on tractor gritter thingy who comes and grits the pavements on regular basis.

Ifailed · Today 07:52

In the current economic climate, I doubt if any council can afford to have a team of pavement gritters sitting around waiting for the odd couple of days per year when their services would be needed.

My neighbour drives a gritter, he usually does other things, but does that when ice / snow is forecast. They used to have guys with push carts, who would grit the pavements on the main streets, but not for years. Apparently, the logic now is to grit the main roads and rely on traffic splashing salty melted snowy water onto the paths.

The council has lost more than 60% of its Government income since 2010 and struggle to provide basic services for everything. It's not that they can't be arsed, it's a case of "Do we provide services for the disabled, or do we do enough gritting?"

I'm in an outer London borough. The main roads are gritted. There are grit boxes on steep roads and at many junctions which residents can use to help clear ice. I was out 2 days ago and saw two council workers gritting a pavement by hand - alongside a major road leading to schools and shops. Not all pavements are done though.
We also get leaves cleared from pavements at least once in the autumn. They've stopped cutting the grass verges and most of the parks in the summer though.
And our council is officially bankrupt!

We also get leaves cleared from pavements at least once in the autumn

• *Not on one side of the Hill up to the roundabout! That hasn't been cleared of leaves for years. The pavement is no longer visible for most of it 😂

This is going back a few years but my late dad thought they did. He said the binmen and gardening teams used to do it as they couldn't do their usual tasks, but that all stopped once those roles were contracted out to external companies.

Our council (Home Counties) don’t clear pavements except outside the assisted living homes. In my local area people tend to clear the area in front of their house, and elderly/disabled neighbours. There are salt bins scattered around on hilly roads (pretty much everywhere!). It’s the front of the flats that are death traps at the moment as no one from the flats has taken ownership. They all have outdoor storage space so I don’t buy that no one has space for a shovel!

Do you live in Croydon by any chance @Edewibs ? It's lethal here, kids go to a secondary in the South of the borough at the top of a big hill and are falling over constantly and covered in bruises. The pavements are so lethal they're mainly walking in the road. Really hope it's all melted away before the rain else it will be sheet ice.

We're so bankrupt that they didn't even seem to grit the main roads 😫

I live on the cusp of of 2 London boroughs and the pavements are currently treacherous in both. Most main roads seem clear but side streets are a nightmare and the pavements are lethal. In some cases it’s safer to walk in the roads then it is in the paths. Am looking forward to it melting, until then I’m just trying to find the sunny side of every street on my dog walk

Ours don't even grit the roads let alone the pavements.

We're so bankrupt that they didn't even seem to grit the main roads

bizarrely, they've gritted our side road every night! I've always hypothesised that there is a councillor living in our road.

You're obviously in the wrong part of town 🤣

Ah, but they grit our road and de-leaf the other side of the hill 😂😂

DS was at school with the mayor's son - I'll get him to Have A Word 😂

I believe there are yellow grit boxes for the community to use in the closest village to me. Unfortunately, from reading posts in the local community Facebook group, it seems the grit boxes are full of broken glass and dog wee.

They used to here, then the grit boxes were seen as an adequate replacement. Now the town council seems to do the major routes.

We're so bankrupt that they didn't even seem to grit the main roads 😫

They did - we're on a fairly main road and the gritting lorries have been up and down constantly. We're close to the depot, so they aren't just gritting our road, most are on their way to other routes. I saw the pavement in Selsdon being gritted the other day.

Although they haven't in years previous they have this year.

I’m in Edinburgh and mostly the streets have been pretty clear, I’m in the city centre so not sure what it’s like on quieter roads though. But we’re more set up for it here really and the Council has to be a bit more prepared. In London where I used to live, I get the impression that it’s only a few days a year so they just don’t bother.

I live in London. The council provides the yellow boxes and grit and community volunteers (known as snow wardens I think) do the gritting - although anyone can help themselves to the grit. The volunteers can also report directly to the council if the boxes need refills or a road is especially bad and the lorry needs to come round.
It's been that way for years.

We're in London and the roads were gritted but only the pavements on the main streets were gritted as well. Side streets have icy pavements still.

Our block of flats sits in private grounds so when our gardeners came to grit our pathways and carpark over the weekend we asked them to do the public pavements on the road up to our flats as well.

I'm a Londoner & we definitely had gritters when I was young although snow was more infrequent. We seem to get it every year now.

there was also the box at the end of the road.