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.

Sounds like a busybody to be honest.

I’ve got a neighbour like him. He ranted when we had an emergency and a help van blocked his drive for 10 mins while he stopped a burst pipe in our house. I can’t bring myself to speak to him anymore.

@WeCantGoOverIt OP said the bin was full so still plenty to go around and she has now ordered some grit for her neighbours, so I don’t think anyone has been adversely impacted by her actions

I believe it’s around 7k to replace a hip (I was quoted 7.5k five years ago, but hopefully neighbour would get it on the NHS - I did, eventually).

Probably around £2 in grit (if that- they buy in bulk).

Whats the most sensible thing to do, I wonder… 🤔

Fuck me it takes a special kind of twat to hear the reason you need something then wang on about how it's not approved usage.

You're right, we have people going to prison for Tweets so with our ridiculous judicial system it is believable that some halfwit jobsworth would take it further.

Well done op on helping your neighbour. Ignore the silly busybody.

Shush, don't muddy the waters (ice) with sensible facts like that.

Also, hip replacements cost around £14K if you are self-funded.

OP didn’t use it on her own property. She used it to help her neighbour avoid a possibly life threatening fall because there was no other option. There isn’t a council in the country who would have said no, had she asked first. What do you think is the better use of the public purse, a few quids’ worth of grit to prevent the fall, or in excess of £10,000 for a hip replacement, hospital stay and adjuvant treatment ?

I'd have buried him in the grit bin. Jesus, you were doing a nice thing.

You sound like a very kind and thoughtful neighbour, the other man is clearly not a happy human being, obviously anyone taking grit out of a bit is using it for safety reasons, why would anyone have an issue with that!….some people would attempt to start an argument with a wall and voicing their opinions to complete strangers on matters that are none of their business sadly seems to give them some kind of ego boost….sad really

‘All you have to do is get out of your own Road’ is what the grit is there for. Without it you might not be able too. Certainly, a lot of people round my road park on the next road whenever it is snowy because there can be days when we can’t ‘get out of our own Road’. The last two years I have been spreading grit to ensure they can. If someone pinched the grit then everyone would be stuck again. If you can drive, you can drive to a shop or garage to buy salt for your own drive (unless someone has pinched the grit from the bin so you can’t get out of your road).

🤣🤣🤣. There are a few ‘special kind(s) of twat’. I live next door to one.

No it isn’t - it’s for gritting public roads and pavements. There’s a grit bit outside mine, first sign of snow people load up their buckets with it, then when it actually settles no one can get up the road because of the stupid fuckers that have emptied the bin for personal use.

There was quite clearly another option. Rather than driving to take grit from a bin placed where it is needed to be used to stop pedestrians falling and breaking their hips on the public footpath or cars sliding, she could have driven to a shop or garage to buy some.

As for the man’s comments - did OP wear a big sign saying ‘I am taking this grit to use on an old persons driveway’ as she pulled up her car and started loading the grit into it?

If an ill person needs to attend hospital safely, that should take precedence.

Who bought the grit and how far away it was is completely irrelevant. It's a pretty shit world if someone can't even use it in poor weather conditions without being questioned. He was being a knob.

All these posters who think they are fine emptying the grit bins for their drives, are no doubt the first to complain about how slippy the roads are so they can’t get places.

People need to use common sense.

Technically the grit in the bin is for public areas. One icy winter a neighbour took almost all the grit out of the village grit bin to put on his driveway, this is a clear misuse.

Taking out a couple of handfuls to help a frail elderly person is something to turn a blind eye to.

Of course it makes a difference. And the expectation is that you buy your own salt/grit for your own private property.

How do you think people can attend hospital safely if they can’t get out of their road because the grit has been taken?

in our town the grit is used by neighbours for the paths and roads! I thought that’s what it was for?? We’d be waiting an age for a council worker to be sent to do it…

She didn’t empty it though did she ? She filled half a bag. Enough to get her neighbour out of her driveway safely. I don’t think the OP’s neighbours’ situation is any less important or worthy of a bit of grit than the other two deliberately provocative examples you’ve given.

Our council website says specifically that it is not to be taken for use on private driveways, and that grit is available to buy to use on your drive. It is for public roads only, but I wouldn’t get het up about it being used in your circumstances. In fact I wouldn’t even challenge anyone taking it in the first place to even find out what it was being used for.

Your taxes have paid for that grit so use it if you need it. The council round my way increased council tax but the roads go ungritted, swept, hedges uncut and grass uncut too. They're doing fuck all for their money.
You did the right thing OP and that busy body can swivel.

It's fine to use it for roads and pavements @Ballyhoballyhoo , just not for private property. Esp if you're carting it away because they put the gritbins where it's most needed, like on steep bits of road.

I haven’t seen any such posts. What most posters are saying is that as a one off it’s fine. Appropriate to the situation, and the OP has now got a bag of grit for the neighbour to keep on the property. Such mean spiritedness on this thread.