The cold weather is back.  Stockport Council’s been preparing for the last year, with lots of salt stockpiled for gritting.  After the extraordinarily bad weather at the beginning of 2010, Stockport also reviewed it’s gritting policy.

Like every other authority, Stockport’s first aim is to keep “priority routes” open: main roads and bus routes.  After that, the gritters move onto other roads.  One of the suggestions Pam and I made last time was that some small roads which are on steep hills should be higher up the gritting priority list.

Gritting isn’t a panacea, though.  It works because the salt spread onto the roads is ground into the ice and snow by passing vehicles, melting it.  If it rains after the salt is spread (as happened more than once last time around), the salt gets washed away.  If it’s a quieter road, it’s less effective as there’s not so much traffic to grind it in.

And remember – all those scare stories about people risking being sued for clearing outside their own houses, businesses and shops were no more than that – scare stories.  No one has ever been sued for sensibly clearing snow and, should we get a big snowfall, I’ll certainly be trying to keep the pavement in front of my house reasonably clear.

So:

• expect gritting, but not miracles
• those of us who are able bodied may need to do our bit
• please let me know where are there problems so I can get the Council to act quickly.

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