Council will learn lessons from snow drama
I am writing in response to Councillor Tim Warren's criticism of the council's snow clearing and road gritting operation.
t is a shame that he has chosen to try and make a party political point out of the difficult conditions and hardships faced recently.
It would have been sensible for him to have tried to find out the facts before making his comments.
I completely agree that there are always lessons to be learned from any situation like this and I therefore ensured that officers carried out an immediate review of recent events to establish whether anything could have been done differently to have reduced the impact of the weather.
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The Liberal Democrat approach has seen the introduction of local "snow patrols" where volunteers are provided with training, equipment and materials to help on local roads and pavements. This approach has also led to coordinated help for priority areas by council employees during bad weather.
On the evening when most disruption occurred, salt levels on the road were high and the forecast indicated that a steady fall of snow would take place across a number of hours.
What actually happened was that we got a rapid fall of snow in a short time which washed salt off the roads especially on steep hills.
The gritter lorries were mobilised as soon as it was clear that the forecast was wrong and they attended all locations where traffic had become stuck.
We can only plan our response based on the best weather information available and we have a network of 420 kilometres of roads, not all of which can be treated at exactly the same time.
This represents 36 per cent of our entire road network whereas the average for all local authorities is 30 per cent.
I am aware of the reports of parking tickets being issued to cars which had been abandoned and I am happy to confirm, as I did in our discussion on local radio, that the authority will take a common sense approach to this matter so that if any such tickets were issued, we will consider cancelling these.
It might have been sensible if Tim Warren had asked me or the relevant officers about these issues before sounding off to the media.
Councillor Roger Symonds Lib Dem Cabinet member for Transport Combe Road Bath
3 Comments
by BV_BV
Saturday, February 16 2013, 2:14PM
“Jonquil - I feel that should be "Put OUR money where your mouth is!!"
The forecast was for heavy snow at 3pm getting worse by 6pm. That's exactly what happened. Unfortunately common sense was absent.”
by jonquil
Saturday, February 16 2013, 11:44AM
“If the council cannot ensure visible 20 mph signs in Bath centre and that traffic adhere to this rule, then how are they expected to deal with snow and ice safety measures. Put your money where your mouth is Bath council.”
by MoeXXX
Thursday, February 14 2013, 10:25PM
“"What actually happened was that we got a rapid fall of snow in a short time which washed salt off the roads especially on steep hills."
This makes no sense. Either the snow melted and washed the salt away - in which case there would be no snow to cause a problem - or it settled. I was there, and it was the latter. This excuse would also appear to contradict the council's initial one, which blamed the stalled traffic for not churning up the grit properly (even though that grit had been laid hours earlier).
"The gritter lorries were mobilised as soon as it was clear that the forecast was wrong and they attended all locations where traffic had become stuck."
No. From previous threads on this same forum, the council spokesman said the forecast at midday was heavy snow but they couldn't predict exactly where or when, so they stuck with Plan A of sending the gritters out for the evening rush hour. He also admitted that when the more accurate forecast was issued, it was too late to change that plan. The forecast turned out to be spot on.
I can accept this explanation. I can accept that the council has limited resources and cannot react quickly enough in certain circumstances.
But I cannot accept b**s*** like this letter. It's just snow; it's not important; why lie about it? Why are politicians so absurdly arrogant to think us plebs will believe whatever they say? What's wrong with a bit of honesty now and then?”