To think the bloke who told me off for taking grit out of the grit bin should fuck off

[Birdbox181]

This morning, I had to get my elderly neighbour to a hospital appointment. She has bone cancer in both hips. Her drive way was very slippery this morning. A fall for her could be fatal. She's on crutches.

I drove to the nearest grit bin I could find, filled a bag for life, probably a quarter full and put it down on her front door step, drive way and the pavement outside her property.

As I was putting it into my bag a bloke stopped and reprimanded me, telling me it's not for private use. I explained the situation and but he wasn't interested.

What an absolute cock.

So who takes precedence, the neighbour with the immediate need or the made up people attending fictitious hospital appointments?

It's a part bag of grit, the neighbour needed to get cancer treatment.

@WeCantGoOverIt the bin was full so assume people have been able to use that road, indeed the OP used that road!

That's so lovely of you to help them .
I would just ignore him . The amount you took won't make much difference.
But what would have cost the NHS in health care for her if she fell and broke bones and such would have been a lot. Not to mention the hospital bed/staff that would have been used. All avoided because you did a good deed .

Honestly mumsnet really reminds you how something that just seems like common sense to you can make people so pinickity. People saying he’s not wrong, that taking some was cheeky etc, just blows my mind. You were doing a good deed, it’s helping out a person who really needed it, you’ve not personally come in to my house and helped yourself to my kitchen salt. I can’t understand why anyone would get involved enough to even question what you were doing in the first place, never mind the comments doubling down that you shouldn’t have taken any!

I could understand a local person getting pissed off if they regularly had people turning up in their Range Rovers emptying the grit bin so they could grit their 12 car drive or the slabs round their hot tub, but OP was doing a lovely and considerate thing for their neighbour. She didn't take the last bits of grit, the bin was full. And she has now come up with another solution if the need for grit arises again

I can see the argument that if everyone did it there'd be none for public paths but the point is everyone doesn't do it. I rarely if ever see folk grit their own paths and let's face it it's only for about 2 weeks a year. 10c next week, wonder what the busybody will be complaining about then!

Not on private property it's not. It's a grit for the public to use on roads that aren't otherwise gritted by the council. It is for use on roads and pavements outside properties, but not for your own driveway or footpath.

https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/streets/road-gritting/grit-bins/

We have a couple of 90 degree bends that get treacherously slippy in the winter as they don't get the sun, so weeks like this the ice just builds up and up. The grit bins are placed next to those corners for people to just grab and chuck it across the road.

On balance, however, if I was the OP and I didn't have a spare bag of dishwasher salt or cat litter knocking around, I may have done the same thing. Needs must and all that.

At least someones using it, I say. At our street there is a grit box that it seems only I bother using - I grit the pavements and the steep hill onto the main road. It seems untouched other than by me. We all use the local area, I wish more people would help distribute the grit.

I think most people who are saying it's not for use on private property are responding to the posters who believe the bin is just for that (and should have told the fella to F off etc), NOT that OP should not have done what she did.

It's a discussion where many people have learnt something.

Thank god there's a man around to tell us silly ladies that sexism is irrelevant.

Of course it’s not just for people in the immediate area or they’d have to put one on every blooming street! I live on the main road in to our village so it’s gritted by the lorry as standard so there’s no need to grit by hand but there’s still a grit bin within sight of my window.
Anyone who complains about someone using Council grit to help an elderly or disabled person is an absolute arse.

This about covers it. Hopefully he’ll be nicer to a neighbour that tries to help him one day. If anyone does.

I understand completely why the OP did what she did and it was a kind thing to have done, but technically the annoyed chap was completely correct too

Where we are, grit bins are only put in places where there is the most serious need for them, due to budget constraints etc. We are on a hill and struggled to get our LA to put one half way up the hill - until the day a council truck struggled, to get up the hill, skidded, fish tailed and almost took out 3 cars due to the slippiness on the hill with the ice and snow. It is beyond soul-destroying to see people arriving in their cars, with bags/buckets etc to help themselves and drive away to other areas to use it, or to use it up on the flat parts of the Estate, leaving none for us - and they don't fill them up for a while once they are emoty

It's a difficult one to be honest

Edited to add - This is what our LA says on its website:

FAQs
Are you refilling grit bins?
Our teams are refilling all public grit bins but we have over 2,000, and it takes time.
The grit from grit bins isn't for use in your own property. If you are using a grit bin, please only take what you need for the public path and public road outside your home.
If you require grit for your own property, please purchase grit or salt from a supermarket.
If you see any commercial businesses taking grit, please let us know. We are aware of several incidents where grit bins have been emptied almost immediately.

😆

Ah yeah but I’m sure in this case nobody could complain right? An old lady with bone cancer who can’t leave her house and a neighbour trying to get her to her hospital appointment. You’d have to have a heart of stone to begrudge that.

Check your local FB page op, busybodies tend to film and post..you may be there bag of grit in hand for all to see .

I think you acted with the best of intentions OP and it is great to know that you are supporting your sick neighbour. There is a 'jobs-worth' in every neighbourhood - put it behind you but maybe pick up a bag of salt/grit from the supermarket (Tesco sell it) next time you're shopping.

So you use it but you have a problem with someone else using it if they drive their car? That's so weird.

Some people can't carry a bag of grit. Some people are in their way out or home and stopping off at the grit bucket. Why are you so peculiar?

Of course you can drive 3 roads over if it's your nearest bin. If the pavement outside your house needs it then you can use it. What did you think? That it was just for pavement within a 5 metre distance from the bin?

The bins are not on every street so sometimes you need to drive to your nearest

So many peculiar people on this this thread

There's ten properties in our cul de sac which goes downhill. A grit bin at the top. Husband and neighbour gritted all the way down. They did one drive because the occupier was having chemotherapy at that time. One miserable bastard complained.

Christ alive. It's for public footpaths and as the bins are not on every street sometimes you need to drive to your nearest one to get it to use on the public path by your house/business

If the unwell woman fell it would be costing the public purse a whole lot more than a bit of grit 😆

💯 this!!

What a mean-spirited po-faced sour lot we have become!

Crikey, when I was a kid, the bins were dropped off in neighbourhoods and you helped yourself, a bit for your path and the the rest for the pavements round your house. Usually by spring, some muppet had put dog turds in the bins, but the council collected them back in ready for next year.

You must have been 😡 OP!

So where you live every street has a grit bin? Where do you live? Around me there is one about every 3 miles infact I can't even picture many.

Christ alive it's not for use on private property and the bins are placed for use in particular locations as those will be where footfall is heaviest. Driving around hunting for one does imply you are stretching that a bit and I can understand why someone might ask someone they don't recognise why they are rocking up to a grit bin and driving off again. Grit bins round my way are frequently completely emptied before the people on the streets where they are most needed can spread it. It's annoying.

As i've said - repeatedly - I personally don't think the OP was being unreasonable given the circumstances but the fact is the man was not wrong to say that OP was misusing the facility.