Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Update - Snow last weekend
I have asked the council for an update as to what went wrong and I am following up the grit bin issues too
Here is the council's response:-
Dear Cllr. Alexander,
Thank you for your enquiry.
I am afraid I cannot pinpoint the exact times when individual roads were gritted as we do not have the technology to do this at the moment, although we will have from next winter when our new Environmental Services contract is up and running.
What I can tell you is that we mobilised our gritting on Saturday morning before it started snowing but our gritters were caught in the traffic caused by the sudden and deep snowfall. I had feedback from Enterprise that it took over one hour to grit Wightman Road alone because of the traffic.
We worked through the day on Saturday into Saturday night to grit the Resilience Networks until they were all treated and passable. When snow falls so fast and so deep it can be more than our resources is able to deal with and it is a case of working through the day to restore normal service as quickly as possible. Restoring normal service was made more difficulty by the high level of traffic on the roads, probably because people were doing their Christmas shopping. The timing of the snow fall could not have been worse in this respect.
Resilience Networks were gritted again last night and they are all running fine today.
The ladder roads are Priority 1 for carriageway gritting but they are not included in our Resilience Network routes so they have not been treated since they were last gritted on Friday last week. You can find details of our all our pavement and carriageway gritting schedules on the Council web-site.
I hope this response helps to explain our actions.
20.12.10
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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The snowfall started on Friday, I wouldn't have called it heavy then. The roads were well gritted earlier in the month and all for nothing in the end. I was wondering if they just held onto their cuppas a bit longer this time and then it was too late. Despite our problems in January I am loathe to blame the council this time around. The amount of snow in the time period was unprecedented and caught out far more traditionally prepared organisations, especially given that it was a week before Christmas. Imagine if it had fallen a week later: nobody would have been on the roads and hundreds of working class Londoners would have received a bonus from William Hill et al. Woo hoo!
Great photos Karen.
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Permalink Reply by Lesley Ramm on
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Karen have you let Lyn Weber knwo about this as she is asking for evidence borough wide to demonstrate lack of preparedness generally.
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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on
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Thanks Lesley, I am liaising with Cllr Weber on this.
My initial post was really focused on Saturday's snow - I agree that it came down very quickly but the council had plenty of notice, the forecast from the preceeding days was spot on - there is always an excuse, it came down too quickly, too heavily, there was too much traffic!
This probably isn't the last of the snow this year (and early next year) so can we look forward to this chaos every time? My first priority is doing the best for my residents, they are the ones that suffer with trecherous icey roads and pavements - if constantly nagging the council to pull its socks up is the only way to do it then its a case of carry on nagging!
In relation to the grit bins - I can confirm that after the last bout of snow early in December the council arranged for the network of grit bins to be checked. All grit bins were checked and where necessary they were topped up.
Following the more recent bout of snow some grit bins have been emptied of grit by residents. However, due to the need to conserve our grit stock the council are not arranging for the grit bins to be topped up again until they have information about when their grit stock will be replenished by their
suppliers
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That is not what they told me when i reported teh bin in my road needed refilling. email reply promised refil asap. too late to do anyting now so i hope snow holds off.
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@Karen, the only people who suffered on Saturday were drivers and then of course bus users. The people suffering now we don't know about because they can't leave their houses and fart obnoxious fumes stuck outside ours.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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A schoolteacher introduced our class to American poetry including Carl Sandburg’s “Psalm of those who go forth before daylight”. Sandburg celebrates people who are out working - usually hard manual work - while many of us are still in bed. Rereading it now, I notice the casual sexism of 1918. But it still makes me ponder how much we depend on people – women and men – who we rarely see.
I’m often critical of the failings of Haringey council. But can we have some balance? And some generosity and acknowledgement that people are out there at night and before dawn, doing their best to keep the roads and pavements open. At the same time trying to keep abreast of the waste and recycling collections. And worrying about the most vulnerable people.
Yesterday I talked to my cousin in Belgium. Their main roads are open but local roads are still very dangerous for driving. Nationally they are short of salt. A few days ago people in Leicestershire phoned to say there was an overnight snowfall and they were snowed in. Friends living in the Scottish Borders were using skis to get around.
Okay, some criticisms of Haringey may be justified. I was critical, myself, of the decision not to put out the Winter Service Plan for public consultation as quickly as possible after February when things were fresh in people’s minds. There can and should be better communication with residents. And right now and in the next few weeks, I hope people will make suggestions for improvements; there are always things to learn.
But please let’s give some praise and encouragement – not for councillors! – but for staff from Haringey and Haringey Enterprise who’ve been out in the worst weather and are still going out.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Thanks, Alan, for that bit of balance.
Now I hope our featherbedded Chief Exec, as he turns over on his feather bedding about 3.00am, spares a thought for the Street Cleaner on 7% of his salary, redeployed to the Gritting team till cuts cut deeper. I hope he's provided him with stout boots and thick gloves, lest he has to buy them slowly and carefully on his own account.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I cannot pinpoint the exact times when individual roads were gritted as we do not have the technology to do this at the moment
I don't say that gritting times should necessarily be recorded at all, but if they are, why should it require technology. What about paper and pencil?!
On a slightly different tack and as a car-less person, I have noticed how many pedestrians, like myself, have taken to walking on the road because the tarmac is clear, whereas the pavements are often still snow covered with partly melted and re-frozen snow – highly hazardous to walk on.
I have never gone over several times. A neighbour told me yesterday a woman fell and broke her ankle and it won't be put in a cast until the 30th. Safer to risk being knocked down by a vehicle.
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We all should have cleared outside our houses and perhaps those of us with shovels, a few others. You can't blame the council for that, no snowbound municipality in the world clears snow from outside people's houses for them. It's a bit late now that it's turned to ice.
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Some of my neighbours shovelled a path in the snow. Lazily, I sprinkled a little kitchen salt in front of our house and next door. Not too much, I don't want to kill the street trees. About 35p worth. Most of the snow melted.
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