I dont expect the streets to be gritted as the roads are far more important imo...its icey and its expected that you will slip on them

I live in a remote village, and the lane to our house hasn't been gritted, and unlike previous years we've not been provided with grit so we can do it ourselves. hence the car is - literally - half a mile away, I can't get it to my house. It's at least 15 minutes to get to it every day. I've noticed the main trunk roads everywhere seem to be very well cleared, but the minor routes & pavements have been ignored. the same in Harrogate, and Leeds - some of the footpaths in Leeds are a disgrace.

i wonder if it's a country-wide policy - clear the trunk roads, leave the side roads? I wonder why?

So you're alright because you have a car, what about those that don't/can't drive?

My father has MS and he cannot get to his car because of the paths, and even if he did he wouldn't be able to get out of it because of the paths.

Not quite.

If it's a private drive or path and the postman slips after you've had a go at clearing snow, then that would be the case.

Areas that are accessed by the public are treated differently. Local authorities and private companies have a duty of care to ensure public access is safe. If they ignore that duty of care, then they could well be liable.

The paths are in a shocking state - I've been in North Hull and West Hull visiting today and just got back home to Cottingham - everywhere is really bad. A few people seemed to have cleared the ice from in front of their property but in general walking conditions are terrible.

Havent always had a car.....its winter for gods sake and you expect it to be icey and slippery.

so you expect every street in Hull to be gritted or just the hallowed Hotham rd and Bricknell ave.

It all depends on what people want and MORE SPECIFICALLY are willing to pay for.

Most local authorities scaled down their gritting/salting operations over the last decade or so, simply because we didn't suffer from any bad weather to make them necessary.

We had a few unseasonably cold days last February and a few this last couple of weeks. Now all the moaners are out blaming the council/government for not having the facilities to clear any snow/ice before its even had a chance to lay. What do they expect? Maybe the council should keep thousands of tons of salt in store, just in case? Road salt is good for a couple of years only, it then needs disposing of and renewing. You've also got to find and maintain buildings suitable for the storage. Then you've got to buy and maintain vehicles to distribute and spread the salt.

It's all a bit like saying: five years ago, all those south-east Asian countries should've anticipated a tsunami and built suitable flood defences.

We don't often agree but I'm with you on this one.

In all fairness my street hasn't been gritted, but I always presumed that the bus routes were treated. Having visited the Bricknell area this afternoon, it is particularly bad and where is your Christmas spirit Baldy, stop being a Scrooge.

I don't think it's too much to ask for major roads and paths to be gritted. Maybe we should get those paying Community Service to get out there and grit/salt the areas affected.

Spot on....and i bet they will be the 1st to complain when told the money for other projects went to buying road salt as its winter and all the streets wanted gritting...the roads are a priority and anything else that gets done is a bonus in my eyes.

People moan just for the sake of it.

Buggerd if i know....wouldnt have botherd me if they hadnt done it....its winter and expect a bit of ice and slipping....Maybe you missed them when they was out gritting the paths round your way.

Whats that got to do with it?

Good point on community service though.

'Cos you're being a bah humbug instead of a sympathetic soul.

wouldn't it be an idea to maybe utilise the likes of the summer machinery that is used for council gardens, i.e grass cutters etc surly they can be adopted to throw a bit of salt out instead of been stuck idle somewhere in a warehouse i assume for x amount of months

But how will the gritter drivers get to work if the roads & paths haven't been gritted?

Take the machinery home then they can start from there house and go to where ever required.

They do, Baldys next door neighbour does exactly that

There is thousands of people out of work that could do with a bit extra cash this time of the year .. They could do the gritting like they did back in the 1940/50s ..There also had snow shoveller has well ..A bit of hard work wouldn't kill anybody ..I did it for nothing clearing the pitch before a Hull Game in the passed

.....HCC have no idea how to cope with snow and ice...in fact the whole of England has no idea.
Over here we start to prepare the roads in Oct....in fact the Town Councils Budget here in Cochrane (only 14000 people live here) is 10 times the one HCC set aside. The end of the day the HCC big boys would rather take their big bonuses then spend a little extra on sorting the roads and sidewalks......its such a shame.....but it will never change.
YES..it drops to -40degc and we ALL change our tyres to winter ones with studs in over here....but we prepare for the worst.....and if things are not done right by the people with the budgets...we tell them and they listen....

HCC and most other English councils have had to cope with snow & ice for the last two, out of the last ten years. Most Canandian authorities know they will have snow & ice for a certain number of days per year, each & every year.

It would be a bigger waste of resource if HCC budgeted for snow clearing and it was never used, money wasted in fact.

I agree to some extent Coddy but the frustration comes from the total lack of; interest/care and planning.
I went out around the city yesterday and there's still people walking on the roads (some with their dogs) because the paths are treacherous. This wasn't just 'my' area, this was Cottingham/Hessle/Anlaby.
They had the gritters out down Cottingham Rd at 5.o.clock last night and it was probably the warmest it's been for days.

Nice and clear down my street now....lovely

Road salt comes from Cheshire mines and is untreated mineral salt. The problem with salt is that it doesn't last unless it is stored correctly i.e. undercover, that's what those hulking great barns are that you see close to motorways. Unless it's stored undercover rainwater will leach it away into watersystems with the consequent pollution problems. A crust also forms (marle) that is virtually impenetrable, the big problem if kept in the open is, the salt only lasts for about one season before it becomes useless.

I remember christmas 1969 or 1970, when it started snowing on christmas night, by boxing night, the paths were knee deep in the stuff. Diesel taxis stopped working because their fuel froze, buses stopped running, the city was at a virtual standstill and do you know what? Nobody moaned about it, probably because many could still remember the winters of 1963 and 1947. Even the winter of 1979 didn't provoke as much moaning as now and all were far worse than anything currently experienced.

The problem we have today is a generation who expect everything to be available, instantly, all year round. The furore over airports and the Channel Tunnel closed because of snow & ice, just before christmas was laughable, again due to everyone expecting that the weather should just "go away" because they wanted to go on holiday.

Council vehicles are now operated at a close to 100% utilisation because they are audited and financially penalised if found to be inefficient. It costs £100s to keep a gritter, of course the councils could specify demountable bodies, so that they could be swapped and used for other duties but they'd then fall foul of accusations of wasting money. Most gritter trucks are 4x4 or 6x4 and some even 6x6 (I know because I have supplied many of them to numerous councils all over the UK), to use these on duties other than gritting would be viewed as overkill and the inefficiency argument again comes into play.

Seems like councils and public utilities cannot win: they'd be accused of waste if they had vehicles & salt available "just in case" and neglect if they don't.

Looking at most shopping trolleys on christmas eve, it's a wonder anyone would NEED to venture out until Lent.

they can't grit everywhere, hotham road is a nothing street so i wouldn't expect it to be. but i don't think it's unreasonable to expect the city's main shopping streets to be cleared during the week before xmas.