Grit bin for the local roads for winter

[David WE Roberts]

In our avenue someone has organised with the Council to supply one of those yellow road salt/grit bins which allow you to grit paths, drives, the roads, your neighbours garden which has always irritated you etc.

Quite a good deal (we think).

The residents pay for the bin, then the Council keep it filled at no extra charge.

Cost us £9 for our contribution, so certainly worth a punt.

I mention it here because

(a) It seesm like a good idea if you have problems with local icy conditions and the gritting lorries ignoring you (b) Because you have to do it yourself - both buying the bin and spreading the salt/grit :-)

Merry Christmas

Dave R

[Andrew Gabriel]

Lots of councils have stopped doing them, after large numbers were stolen (and/or the contents were stolen) over last two years.

[Alan]

In message , Andrew Gabriel wrote

I doubt if the contents will be enough to grit more than the road OR path, spread too little grit/salt you will probably make the problem worse and you will get black ice on the second cold night.

Residents will have to agree on the priority of roads or paths. What will happen in real life is the that one person that gets up at 6am and cannot get his car out of the drive will use 99% of the contents of the bin for his personal use.

I'll also bet the agreement to top up the contents is for once a year and not once per day so don't us it all at once.

[Frank Erskine]

Our local council places these each winter(ish) at strategic points, such as near to steep banks and similar hazardous bits. Probably due to cutbacks in spending they've left them there since last winter.

The main problem is that some people seem to regard this as a free source of grit/salt/whatever_it_is for their own driveways rather than what it's intended for, viz. the public highway (footways and carriageway); as soon as the bin is replenished they're out with a sledge and buckets to steal the precious stuff to meticulously clear every bit of their property of snow/ice/frost.

A couple of years ago when there was a serious shortage of salt the LA used road planings. Although they did little to melt the ice they did help to improve traction a bit.

[brass monkey]

It works fine here, the youngsters shovel it along the street for all of us. A single phone-call and the bin is refilled within an hour or two. Then again, this is Britland.

[brass monkey]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, LA = local authority, I thought it was Los Angeles. :D Get onto your local councillor, many times. They submit (after a while) and get things moving. Go steady on the naughty words, ours don't seem to like that approach.

[Frank Erskine]

Not _our_ local councillors. They're all Labour :-(

[root]

We have a grit bin that was installed in our road when the houses were built c. 1960. As others have said, it works well and a short call to the council is all that's needed to get a top-up. They do stipulate that the grit is ONLY for use on roads, not private paths/drives but: WTH.

The plan does fall down though. When the bins were installed, the councils policy was to grit all the main roads, so only "feeder" roads needed and were provided with grit bins. Now that the council has decided road gritting is too hard and they've decided to not grit anything except arterial roads, there is a gap in the plan. Local roads can be cleared through the efforts of the residents. "A" roads are cleared by the grudging and tardy action of the council's single gritter. However the roads that link these two sorts no longer get cleared or gritted. Since the terrain round here is quite hilly, you are able to drive the first few hundred yards, and the final 50 miles of your trip, but you can't go the intervening mile of iced-up main roads.

It's a typical case of no joined-up thinking.

[Martin Brown]

Chain the thing down to an immovable object if at all possible.

There is a score card that determines which situations require the County Council to provide a grit bin. Round here now in practice it requires a busy steep hill with a blind bend and a junction to qualify.

Local councils can obtain them and pay to have them filled once or twice during the winter season but it is expensive, and scrotes come round with a wagon and pinch them all from time to time.

Waiting to see if that will be a problem here. I suspect that complete outsiders on a flat bed pinching the entire unit is more of a problem. We have one county council bin and two parish council ones.

They just gave up round here and we got an amazing pompous email titled "Letter from the Leader" telling us what a good job they were doing. It didn't go down at all well with 1" of polished pack ice on the road though our neighbouring village and no salt anywhere to be seen.

Regards, Martin Brown

[ARWadsworth]

The one at the top of my street works fine.

Although people are a little heavy handed in spreading the stuff. They tend to lay it in the street and leave it looking more like a carpet instead of spreading it out like a gritter would do. TBH you only need to lightly grit the tracks that the 4x4s have made to allow the rest of us to use the road.

[Adrian Simpson]

In article , Frank Erskine writes

Round here, they seem to be permanent fixtures. Not looked inside one, but judging by last year, they must get replenished periodically.

Adrian

[grimly4]

Last time I looked inside one it was full of crap. Otoh, they make useful emergency shelters when you're stuck by the side of the road in the Highlands.

[chrisj.doran%proemail.co.uk]

This year our Council has set up a "snow friends" scheme for the backstreets where groups of residents are being provided with bags of grit and shovels. One person in the group is responsible for storing and handing out the grit. We wait to see how well it works. I hope the Council also provide insurance against ambulance-chasing lawyers.

My observation of grit bins elsewhere is that (a) the lid disappears, (b) as much of the rest as possible is stoved in, (c) the grit is stolen or used and never replenished, and (d) the bin is filled with rubbish, leaving the whole thing a useless blot on the landscape.

Chris

[ARWadsworth]

Sheffield had "snow wardens" a few years ago. I believe that they were a success. However lack of funds stopped any more people getting the training.

[Frank Erskine]

[ARWadsworth]

The scheme was run by the council. You cannot just send someone out with a shovel. You also need 3 others to lean on their shovels and watch you clear the snow.

[damduck-egg]

Not PC to call them Snowmen I suppose.

G.Harman

[jgharston]

If they do that round here, I'll be the one standing at the bottom of the hill laughing as they panicedly try and stop their wheels slithering all over the way as they careen into the shops and at bottom of the hill.

JGH

[Ghostrecon]

was article on radio 4 a month or so ago with an interview with one of those having had the training - basically how to shovel snow, where to put it (BG) how wide should the cleared area should be and how to apply grit IIRC

[Andy Burns]

I suppose I've eeked-out £15 quids worth of salt over 3 years, enough to keep my drive and the the path outside my house clear.

Even if everyone down the street uses the bin to keep 'their' section of road clear, don't expect the bin lorry to even attempt to do the rounds ...