Coppice Lane, Brownhills, today – Sunday 10th December 2017. Image Kindly supplied by Simon John.
Well, we’ve had a fair bit of snow and it’s looking very festive out there – just a word to say that it’s safe to assume any events advertised today are cancelled, and I’ll do my best to update you with school news tomorrow, my commute permitting.
In the meantime, stay in unless necessary, stay warm, watch out for old folks (many are a crack shot with snowballs, National Service training, don’tchkanow) and don’t panic, what will be will be.
Walsall Gritters were out all night and are out now, but grit’s not magic as you can read here at this explanation of it’s limitations posted by Rochdale Council.
Walsall Council issued the following statement this morning:
Good morning,
With snow continuing to fall, the advice is to stay indoors and only venture out if you need to.
Our gritting crews continue to be out. Since the early hours of this morning, they’ve gritted the main highway network 3 times. Ploughs have now been fitted to the lorries to clear snow.
Our winter maintenance plan enables us to grit around 41% of Walsall’s roads (or 218 / 532 miles of the highway network) and this takes us around 3 to 4 hours each run. There are 6 snow clearance routes and so unfortunately, we can’t grit every road. That’s mainly due to capacity issues and the fact that some side roads are inaccessible for a 7.5 to 10 tonne lorry, but also grit only works when enough cars trample on it.
We know there will always be some who will say they’ve not seen a gritter and therefore question if we’ve been out: but we have (three times since 2am this Sunday morning) and will be throughout the day.
Unfortunately, grit doesn’t work miracles. One of the key problems with gritting is the lack of traffic can make it less effective. Snow and ice on motorways and main roads clears relatively quickly, but salt will sit idle on streets where there are fewer vehicles.
Salt is stored at our grit barn in Brownhills and at the start of the winter maintenance season (1 November) we had around 3,000 tonnes of grit.
As of yet, nobody knows which schools will be open, what public transport will run or whether the bins will be emptied, so settle down folks and let’s see.
My sympathies and thoughts with the emergency services, carers, gritted folks and all those having to work today. Stay safe people.
It might rain and be gone by morning!
Streets Corner, Walsall Wood, today – Sunday 10th December 2017. Image Kindly supplied by Helen Lago.
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Even the main ring road in the centre of Walsall was not gritted by 9.00am. Almost impassible.
Buses marooned a common sight. A miracle that I had got up the slight incline opposite Tesco. Yet Council Tax continues to rise….
I take it you didn’t read the statement from the council or the link from Rochdale, then…
We have to make do with road salt as it’s almost impossible to get fairy dust these days.
Bob