Free grit for all! - Page 21

katex · 12-12-2010, 16:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

If the Leader had provisioned for every household phoning up for a bag of grit would it not have been simpler to just deliver a bag of grit to every household? I'm afraid the residents of Rishton have not benefitted at all.
.

Just wondered what type of vehicle is delivering the grit, Ken ? Would have to be of a size to carry quite a few bags, but still capable of making its way through snow covered side streets.

If they were delivering to everybody in the Borough, then a larger vehicle would be required which wouldn't be able to proceed on these roads.

Hope you understood that.

Ken Moss · 12-12-2010, 16:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by JCB

So you would have been far too busy playng Santa Claus for Rishtoners to be involved in Graham Jones' campaign to get elected to Westminster ?

Graham got my full support in Rishton in the election campaign and will continue to get it for the rest of his tenure in politics. Every objection I have ever heard him make to Conservative policies has been for a very good reason and has always backed it up with the logical alternative. I have never known him clamour to get in front of the cameras or go all out to get his face in the papers with a non-story just for a bit of cheap publicity.

In short, he is my kind of MP and a damn sight better for Hyndburn than the alternative candidates.

Ken Moss · 12-12-2010, 17:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by katex

Just wondered what type of vehicle is delivering the grit, Ken ? Would have to be of a size to carry quite a few bags, but still capable of making its way through snow covered side streets.

If they were delivering to everybody in the Borough, then a larger vehicle would be required which wouldn't be able to proceed on these roads.

Hope you understood that.

Of course, and the honest answer is that I don't know.

As it stands, I understand that 8,639 bags have been ordered through this scheme and it has gone £7,500 over budget which means that offering it to the whole borough for £10k was a little ambitious and to be blunt an outright lie. That number of bags equates to around 130 tonnes which is a fair old number of trips if you're using a council flatbed Transit van.

There's no simple blanket solution to the gritting problem but there are far better ways of going about it. Some of my residents are in their 90s and can barely walk so giving them a 30lb bag of grit and expecting them to spread it themselves isn't very practical.

Last year we had reports of some of the council operatives unable to work due to the icy conditions so surely it would be better to give them alternative duties such as hand gritting?

lancsdave · 12-12-2010, 17:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by katex

Just wondered what type of vehicle is delivering the grit, Ken ?

Well it won't be a gritter, they belong to LCC

katex · 12-12-2010, 17:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by lancsdave

Well it won't be a gritter, they belong to LCC

Exactly .. and they were otherwise occupied !

Or the refuse wagons (who got through OK this year) .. no room for grit bags.

Anyways, LCC did a sterling job this year ... gotta' give them credit for that ..

Neil · 12-12-2010, 17:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

..... I'm afraid the residents of Rishton have not benefitted at all......

Why not? [sarcastic comment removed]

If you can do a mail shot to all the houses in 5 hours why did you not inform them all about ringing up for a bag as soon as you knew about it?

Ken Moss · 12-12-2010, 17:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil

Why not? [sarcastic comment removed]

If you can do a mail shot to all the houses in 5 hours why did you not inform them all about ringing up for a bag as soon as you knew about it?

In actual fact I did as part of my Area Council mail shot. It was also announced online on my Facebook and blog pages, at my surgery and the Area Council meeting which everyone in the village was invited to by letter.

Short of actually phoning up for them I think I made a reasonable effort to let them know.

jaysay · 12-12-2010, 17:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Less

How can shopkeepers be held responsible for a pavement not owned by them?

In that case they probably don't own the shop either but they don't leave the door wide open when they go home at nights either

jaysay · 12-12-2010, 17:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

Do me a favour and e-mail me a copy of my agenda will you? I seem to have lost my copy.

Save an email, if its not in Rishton I ain't bothered and I hate Britcliffe is about the agena in full

andrewb · 12-12-2010, 17:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

That safe a seat that Baroness Warsi was parachuted in to help the Tory campaign and the majority has dropped to a just a few hundred instead of the landslide it once was.

It's clear that the weight of feeling from a few of you is against the idea of hand gritters being used by a redundant litter-picking workforce. Fair enough, I'm big enough to accept defeat when an idea isn't that popular, but can any of you explain why this scheme which was open to everyone in the borough and costed at £10,000 didn't actually reach everyone in the borough by quite a margin?

If the Leader had provisioned for every household phoning up for a bag of grit would it not have been simpler to just deliver a bag of grit to every household? I'm afraid the residents of Rishton have not benefitted at all.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding in a huge way but until it is categorically defended by one of the Tory faithful as having acheived what it promised I will remain cynical.

Why did the residents of Rishton not benefit? They were entitled to the grit if they requested it were they not? Did you include it in a newsletter?

Ken Moss · 12-12-2010, 17:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaysay

Save an email, if its not in Rishton I ain't bothered and I hate Britcliffe is about the agena in full

If you secretly really do believe the first part of that then I must rank very low on your list of people to have respect for.

As for the second part, 'hate' is a very strong word although I must confess to a passing distaste for the man....

jaysay · 12-12-2010, 17:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

Short of actually phoning up for them I think I made a reasonable effort to let them know.

Just a little help ya get free calls after six with both BT and Sky, worth noting for the next freeze

katex · 12-12-2010, 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

There's no simple blanket solution to the gritting problem but there are far better ways of going about it. Some of my residents are in their 90s and can barely walk so giving them a 30lb bag of grit and expecting them to spread it themselves isn't very practical.

Last year we had reports of some of the council operatives unable to work due to the icy conditions so surely it would be better to give them alternative duties such as hand gritting?

Anyone of 90 who can barely walk would not be venturing out onto the streets or their drive.

Last year we hadn't enough grit to do many pavements anyway ! Maybe, this year the council workers managed to do their work ? Maybe it is not in their job description ? Perhaps too many legalities surrounding pavement gritting ? Who knows.

Remember, surfaces have to be swept of snow first and then gritted, so extremely labour intensive.

Think you are grasping at straws here, Ken, criticising the scheme and desperately trying to come up with other ways (but not thinking them through) ... but brownie point for trying.

Not saying the scheme was the best .. just a gesture in my opinion to try and help ... OK .. maybe a vote catcher, but was an attempt at least.

To me, would only help to get people with cars in their drive an advantage as once in the street, walkers would come across unsalted pavements anyway. Not many privies at the bottom of a yard these days, however, useful to de-ice a path to the wheelie bin I suppose.

Ken Moss · 12-12-2010, 18:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by katex

]Remember, surfaces have to be swept of snow first and then gritted, so extremely labour intensive.

Think you are grasping at straws here, Ken, criticising the scheme and desperately trying to come up with other ways (but not thinking them through) ... but brownie point for trying.

Grit works fine on snow-covered pavements, the only real problem comes when the temperature drops below -12 degrees as salt becomes ineffective so I'm told.

As for grasping at straws, you may well think that but the scheme has simply not helped people outside of Baxenden and large parts of Oswaldtwistle in time to deal with the recent cold snap. There were far better ways of spending the same amount of money and helping a wider section of the community.

Someone suggested that they simply grit outwards from the depot in a widening radius. If it had taken a week you would still have helped more than 8,600 homes.

I don't know how it is in other wards that have not received their bags yet but I'm now getting reports from residents in Rishton that they have phoned up again and been told that they aren't due their delivery until late January.

Offering bags of grit to the public is not a terrible idea but a two-week window in November? September or October would have been a better start time for a rolling programme.

I'm still sticking with the idea of blanket gritting by a labour force with nothing else to do.

katex · 12-12-2010, 18:34

This was an interesting article from the Citizen, some good explanations there from LCC including gritting certain areas, which don't have the traffic or footfall, and would become ineffective.

Lancsdave ... see Question 6 ..

Lancashire County Council chief answers your gritting questions (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

If you can come up with decent costings and time and motion studies to grit all the pavements, Ken, I will nominate you to become an Alderman of the Borough..

Haven't got my freebie yet, but Hey Oh .. will do for the next freeze over.