To think it's an outrage the council haven't gritted?

[ToeSucker]

I think it's a sign of the times, but it's the first year the council haven't gritted the walkways and everyone is slipping.
I've seen people waiting for ambulances after falling on the street twice this week.
I work in the a&e and we've had a huge surge in fractures, especially hip fractures in elderly people who end up needing surgery.

AIBU to be outraged the council think the NHS (and taxpayer) can just pay for the consequences of not gritting? They gave a few thousand pounds that ends up going on some Christmas lights, and the NHS ends up paying hundreds of thousands in fracture treatment and bed blocking as a result.

It's a sign of fourteen years of central funding being slashed to the bone.

Where are you OP? Where we are the Council hasn't gritted and the snow was gone by midday.

It's been black ice on walkways all week. All up the high street. I'm in the southeast.

Why do all those people insist on going out when the weather's cold and icy? People need to have a bit of sense.

They can’t grit every pavement.

I don't think my council has ever gritted pavements. I don't think the council where I grew up ever did either. I remember the winter of 62/63 when everything was iced up for weeks.

We've had a couple of council employees walking along some of the main pavement areas with little gritter trolleys but I don't think it's been very effective. Apparently the grit only really works if it's walked / driven over quite a bit to get bedded into the snow / ice. And that isn't happening.

We ha a good downpour overnight on Friday that finally got rid of a weeks worth of snow and ice in town (Whitby), but apparently the surrounding villages are still snowed in and the main routes out still only passable with care after fresh falls of snow today.

I can't ever remember councils gritting pavements other than perhaps on the main high street. Or minor roads. They only got cleared if residents did it themselves. I think sometimes people have rose-tinted nostalgia glasses....

Yawn

I always worked on the basis that the council gritted the main roads and you used the grit bins on smaller roads and pavements. However my council recently removed a lot of the grit bins which has been very unhelpful. Used to have one at the corner of my street but it was removed late last year. My neighbours and I have all helped each other when stuck but being unable to grit the road (which we would willingly have done) has left it a black ice nightmare. Several of us have our own salt bins but it’s not in the volume to do the whole road even if we used all of it.

We had a good downpour overnight on Friday that finally got rid of a weeks worth of snow and ice in town

Rain would have washed away grit, too. The rain was forecast across England, so councils would have known gritting before that would be wasted effort.

My road has been gritted but the pavements are absolutely treacherous. I’m lucky that I live on a bus lane so it’s been prioritised but other hilly roads locally have’t and they’re basically ice rinks and people are stuck in their houses.

Our council removed all the grit bins recently though, to save money, so people can’t even do anything about it themselves.

My gran broke her wrist in 1982 when she fell on ice on the (ungritted) pavement.

I don't think our council generally grits pavements. If they grit the roads next to them then some grit goes on the pavement I suppose.

I know! Imagine having to leave your house to go to work eh? Or buy food? What a stupid thing to say

I used my common sense and didn’t go out walking on icy pavements because I didn’t want to risk falling. I get that some people may have not had a choice, but then take precautions, wear proper footwear, use a stick! Stop blaming the council!!!

I can't remember the council ever gritting pavements ,well maybe they do in the town centre but not anywhere else.

I remember the pavements getting gritted when I was a child, but this only seems to be done now by shops or businesses nearby, certainly not the council.
Where I live now, the residential roads don't get gritted either. The bus routes do, but I've not seen other roads near me gritted for about 30 years. We don't have grit bins anywhere unless they're very heavily camouflaged!

And your council used to grit all the pavements?

I’m southeast, have lived under various complexions of council and government - I’ve never had a council which routinely gritted pavements in cold weather. Possibly because its not a terribly effective way of improving safety and a “few thousand pounds” won’t touch the surface of widespread gritting and repeat gritting.

I do however have grippy shoes/boots for the icier Winter weather and because I have osteoarthritis/neural damage causing balance issues I also have walking poles for particularly icy weather. You might suggest posters for the department/GP surgeries of the types of footwear and poles which help in this weather - in fact my GP surgery already has them.

In one high street I used the local trades tried gritting but one of the problems with it was that in really cold weather it can make things worse due ot the salt in the grit. It was only really suitable for short spells of mild freezing weather.

First ridiculous comment I’ve read so far this year .

Grit bins are removed as dog walkers put their bags of dog shit in them!

Are you saying the Tories still control the budget and, in the approaching 2 years that Labour have been in government, they could not have changed this? Or have I just fallen for a 'comedy' meme?

Our council has never gritted the pavements round here. Not even the side roads.

I'm in the West Midlands and we had th snow. The main roads seemed to be gritted but not pavements. My DH fell over on our own drive ironically as he was going to grit it with grit and salt. He has really hurt his back. He has fractured his spine previously in a car accident and is in pain. I don't see how anyone can grit all the pavements though. I know on steep slopes they have yellow bins of grit.

As I said, the council didn't grit anything at all this time around. The high street is untouched with black ice everywhere in front of the shops. I'm not talking side roads here, I'm talking the areas of town with the highest people traffic.

I don't understand how gritting can apparently make the ice worse if it's more than a day or 2 but I would like to understand.