Where's Our Road Salt & Grit?

[Keith Scantlebury]

Look North reported last week [or pos the week before] that Durham, Cleveland, North Yorks and Tyneside Councils had learned a lesson from last winter and increased the ammount of salt they would need for their roads and ordered it earlier so that they would not be caught short again. They did not mention Northumberland County Council.

My daughters boyfriend works for N.C.C [the bit that used to be Wansbeck] Where was he this morning? .......Blyth with a tractor borrowing some salt because the Wansbeck area had none. The spine road had obviously not been treated as the traffic was queing from Moor Farm almost to Ashington. My daughter lives on the estate by the police stn. She could not turn right out of the estate this morning because the traffic was queing from the Monkey to Netto because the cars had difficulty getting up Glebe Bank.

This is bang out of order, the forecasters warned us of this weather last weekend. Maybe N.C.C. think that we in this corner of the county do not need to move arround as safely as those in the rest of the county. It could be that they dont grit the road purposley so that we slow down and take care of ourselves, or could the ammount of compensation that they would have to pay [for accidents that occured because of their negligence] would be far less than the cost of purchasing and applying extra salt?.

I sincerely hope that the latter is not the case. It seems that the whole of Bedlington was at a virtual standstill [ I live at the station] again at a time when people were trying to get to work and when kids were on their way to school all because of a little bit of snow.

Maybe they thought that if they left it alone it would look pretty when the lights get switched on tonight ..... after all, that would be as good as any excuse that that they could come up with.

[mercuryg]

Have to say that the gritter did more than one run up the front street yesterday evening when I was about, and truck otwing a hopper filled up at least one of the containers by the Sun Inn. Minor roads will never be a priority unfortunately, but it always amazes me that teh country grinds to a halt after a couple fo inches of the stuff!

[Monsta®]

they've been gritting the oval and surrounds!

[Keith Scantlebury]

No-one would expect minor routes to be top of the list but I wouldn't class the spine road as a minor road . I do think that if the powers that be got their fingers out and sorted out the main roads, bus routes and the areas outside schools early, they would be able to do something about the estate roads and pavements unlike last winter when several falls of snow were allowed to compact [as it did where I live] and teams of men with shovels were sent out.

Edited November 25, 2010 by keith

[Monsta®]

No-one would expect minor routes to be top of the list but I wouldn't class the spine road as a minor road . I do think that if the powers that be got their fingers out and sorted out the main roads, bus routes and the areas outside schools early, they would be able to do something about the estate roads and pavements unlike last winter when several falls of snow were allowed to compact [as it did where I live] and teams of men with shovels were sent out.

its britian a few flakes always makes the country come to a stand still!

[Vic Patterson]

I remember traveling from Bedlington to the power station in the snow, (about 40 years ago) in my BMW (Isetta bubble car!) the roads were rutted and frozen, where does the middle wheel go! the throttle cables ran under the car and froze solid, to make it worse the railway gates closed at the station, I had to use the ignition key as a throttle!

(snowing here still, and it's coming your way )

[Keith Scantlebury]

I remember traveling from Bedlington to the power station in the snow, (about 40 years ago) in my BMW (Isetta bubble car!) the roads were rutted and frozen, where does the middle wheel go! the throttle cables ran under the car and froze solid, to make it worse the railway gates closed at the station, I had to use the ignition key as a throttle!

(snowing here still, and it's coming your way )

Ah well Vic, you know what they say don't you. Nostalgia's not what it used to be, is it?

[Vic Patterson]

"one-stop shop for everything from the 60s, 70s and 80s",

"I have always been very wary of nostalgia, regarding it as an evil similar and related to the onset of senility" (Tony Ryan)

I agree with you,nostalgias not like it were when I was a lad,we had proper nostalgia then!

Edited November 25, 2010 by Vic Patterson

[threegee]

I feel a song coming on:

...

Can it be that it was all so simple then

Or has time rewritten every line

If we had the chance to do it all again

Tell me - Would we? Could we?

Memories

May be beautiful and yet

What's too painful to remember

We simply choose to forget

...

...no, no, stop! Not Streisand, B.; more Como, P.!

[Malcolm Robinson]

I remember traveling from Bedlington to the power station in the snow, (about 40 years ago) in my BMW (Isetta bubble car!) the roads were rutted and frozen, where does the middle wheel go! the throttle cables ran under the car and froze solid, to make it worse the railway gates closed at the station, I had to use the ignition key as a throttle!

(snowing here still, and it's coming your way )

Bubble car!!!!!!

Would have been nice to have a Bubble car! I remember going into Brentford Nylons one night and my hands froze onto the handlebars of my motorbike. I had to drive into the factory and thaw out before I could turn the ignition off!

That isn't when we lived in a shoe box in the middle of the River Blyth either, kids these days, never had it so good to paraphrase a controversial Conservative Lord!

[Malcolm Robinson]

I feel a song coming on:

...no, no, stop! Not Streisand, B.; more Como, P.!

Flipping heck, is this the softer side of GGG coming out????????

[Keith Scantlebury]

Just had a quick look at Koast Radio's web site , didn't take too long to read. I don't think I have ever read so much self righteous twaddle. The station manager Vicky Oakley [ an accountant] says she worked for the council and left because it seemed "she wasn't making a difference anymore" Seems like she was in charge of clearing snow and gritting the roads. Oh, and an accountant that is not out to make a quick buck or two, if thats true I'll eat HAY WITH A BLOODY HORSE.

[Merlin]

Like deja vu that Keith, I said something similar and for some reason she didn't like it. :dribble: Oh! and she does't like emotions

:lol:

Note to NCC: If you can be bothered get your maps out, between Ashington and Cramlington there's a place called Bedlington........WE COULD DO WITH THE GRITTERS HERE ESPECIALLY THE BANK ON GLEBE ROAD........ cars stuck again there this morning! Had an interview in Washington this morning, it took me longer to get out of Bedlington than it did the rest of the journey to Washington and I live on a main road! An ABSOLUTE BLOODY DISGRACE!

[the wanderer]

I have spoken to council twice today regarding gritting.

Once was first thing this morning after nearly killing myself driving down the un gritted bank at atlee park.

On website claimed they will grit primary routes by 8 oclock but this never happened.

Secondly was to ask if they are planning to grit it tomorrow morning as i dont fancy trying to navigate it ungritted again.

I was assure it would be but we will see.

Strangely once I got past three horse shoes roads were gritted and clear of traffic............

[Merlin]

That's the point I was trying, in my perverse way, to get across! Once out of Bedlington roads were gritted, I'll not say clear, but they were bloody driveable FFS

[sizsells]

Like deja vu that Keith, I said something similar and for some reason she didn't like it. :dribble: Oh! and she does't like emotions

:lol:

Note to NCC: If you can be bothered get your maps out, between Ashington and Cramlington there's a place called Bedlington........WE COULD DO WITH THE GRITTERS HERE ESPECIALLY THE BANK ON GLEBE ROAD........ cars stuck again there this morning! Had an interview in Washington this morning, it took me longer to get out of Bedlington than it did the rest of the journey to Washington and I live on a main road! An ABSOLUTE BLOODY DISGRACE!

Took me 30 mins to get from Bedlington to the A1 yesterday not a grain of grit on the road and Hartford Bank was something like Eddie the Eagle used to ski down and this was at 5.30 am........ this morning same time got to the blyth side of the bridge and the roads were a lot better but our roads are just the same........... travled to just north of Morpeth tonight and the roads leaving Bedlington are an utter disgrace where are the GRITTERS?

[Merlin]

This has been on the news all day, unfortunately they didn't quite realise the point they were making! All roads in the N.E. were moving and no major problems are reported except in the Morpeth and Bedlington areas where roads are blocked and driving is extremely hazardous! Says it all really!

[Keith Scantlebury]

Took me 30 mins to get from Bedlington to the A1 yesterday not a grain of grit on the road and Hartford Bank was something like Eddie the Eagle used to ski down and this was at 5.30 am........ this morning same time got to the blyth side of the bridge and the roads were a lot better but our roads are just the same........... travled to just north of Morpeth tonight and the roads leaving Bedlington are an utter disgrace where are the GRITTERS?

I used to park my wagon in the Milne car park over the weekends when I worked for a haulier from Nottingham. They complained to N.C.C. on many occasions about the lack of gritting and how difficult it was to get out to the A1 in bad weather and that a 44ton , 56' long vehicle with a 2.5 ton fork lift hanging off the back of the trailer was not the best of things to get stuck on these roads at 5 am on a Monday morning. N.C.C suggested to my employer that I should leave the truck where it was, in the H.G.V. parking bays until the weather cleared. They were not in control of the weather and it was not their fault that it snowed when none of their gritting crews were at work. My gaffer was well impressed with N.C.C's commitment to road safety.... not...

[Keith Scantlebury]

My daughters boyfriend, who works for N.C.C., has been told not to plough and grit at the same time. This is for health and safety reasons as they are two seperate jobs and doing both at the same time would affect concentration levels. He has also been sent on a course to learn how to climb in and out of a tractor cab.

[Malcolm Robinson]

My daughters boyfriend, who works for N.C.C., has been told not to plough and grit at the same time. This is for health and safety reasons as they are two seperate jobs and doing both at the same time would affect concentration levels. He has also been sent on a course to learn how to climb in and out of a tractor cab.

The jobsworths ordering this sort of thing need lining up against the wall..........

There has been no grit on the Netherton road out of Bedlington since we copped for the second lot of snow!

[sizsells]

Look North reported last week [or pos the week before] that Durham, Cleveland, North Yorks and Tyneside Councils had learned a lesson from last winter and increased the ammount of salt they would need for their roads and ordered it earlier so that they would not be caught short again. They did not mention Northumberland County Council.

My daughters boyfriend works for N.C.C [the bit that used to be Wansbeck] Where was he this morning? .......Blyth with a tractor borrowing some salt because the Wansbeck area had none. The spine road had obviously not been treated as the traffic was queing from Moor Farm almost to Ashington. My daughter lives on the estate by the police stn. She could not turn right out of the estate this morning because the traffic was queing from the Monkey to Netto because the cars had difficulty getting up Glebe Bank.

This is bang out of order, the forecasters warned us of this weather last weekend. Maybe N.C.C. think that we in this corner of the county do not need to move arround as safely as those in the rest of the county. It could be that they dont grit the road purposley so that we slow down and take care of ourselves, or could the ammount of compensation that they would have to pay [for accidents that occured because of their negligence] would be far less than the cost of purchasing and applying extra salt?.

I sincerely hope that the latter is not the case. It seems that the whole of Bedlington was at a virtual standstill [ I live at the station] again at a time when people were trying to get to work and when kids were on their way to school all because of a little bit of snow.

Maybe they thought that if they left it alone it would look pretty when the lights get switched on tonight ..... after all, that would be as good as any excuse that that they could come up with.

OH I know where some of the money that should be used to make the roads SAFER

There is a planning application to put in a road to Gallagher Park? Mind you the one that is there has been adequate for god knows how long in fact its no worse than the paths leading to Humford woods via Atlee park so WHY? Or is this another FOLLY by the bliidy idiots in charge........ they want/need tha heeds bangin together.... btw the notice is tied to a post on the entrance to the park near the polis station and I dont think it was there last week as I walk the dogs along that road frequently.

[Malcolm Robinson]

There is a planning application to put in a road to Gallagher Park?

Really, I kind of hope this is true because the lack of a decent road into that area has stifled any sort of development down there for various groups trying to access it to try and build community facilities.

[Merlin]

Although I tend to agree with Malcolm on this one, you have to be aware that we are approaching the cooncil silly season, when all surplus monies have to be got rid of or else they lose it off their next budget. This is when things pop up out of the blue and usually makes you think Like them stupid white barriers down the Band Stand car park, where entry and exit is now downright dangerous, incidentally why have the cooncil used an angle grinder to dispose of the locking mechanism?

Let us all try to think of something downright stupid that Bedlington doesn't need and see how many pop up in the next few month!

Just to start us off:- Turnstiles on the subway, top of Glebe Road!

[sizsells]

There is a planning application to put in a road to Gallagher Park?

Really, I kind of hope this is true because the lack of a decent road into that area has stifled any sort of development down there for various groups trying to access it to try and build community facilities.

With all due respect its been adequate enough for years so why "WASTE" the money, even you cannot dissagree it could be used more wisley unless its as Merlin suggests.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Because sizsells,

What is one of the most valid and open sores the Bedlington Community have had to put up with for years.........

The abject lack of any leisure/sporting facilities. We have paid the running costs for other centers of these sorts for decades yet never had any of our own.

One recent attempt to get leisure/sporting/youth facilities down in that area highlighted the likely costs of a two way road down to the football pitch. It came out to around 3/4's of a million quid and was one reason the project died. (It was an extra cost over and above the capital cost of the project build costs.)

So if there is a decent road going in there and right down to the pitches it could open up a myriad of possibilities for enterprising community groups!

I do find it hard to believe at a time of active budget cut backs NCC would agree to an expenditure on this scale, but I will check it out.