Just like the last heavy rains in the city a few weeks ago, combined with weeds and leaves covering drains and gullies, caused flooding in parts of the city, residents are being faced this week with the impact of the delicately put together gritting rota for Brighton and Hove’s residential streets.
There are of course other bodies that look after roads around the city. These include Highways England, East Sussex County Council and West Sussex Highways.
Within the city boundaries, the council is responsible for gritting our roads – all of our roads.
During severe weather, the council’s webpages note that the council tries to keep clear all A roads, most B roads and would prioritise bus routes and access to local hospitals.
Following the chaos on the city’s roads this evening (Sunday 11 December), residents were rightly asking on social media is whether the council had cut down on gritting.
Residents reported that Ditchling Road was chaos above Fiveways, apparently ungritted.
Others noted no gritters on Sutherland Road, with some proclaiming ‘Where are the gritters?’.
There were reports of no gritting by the Balfour Road schools, of multiple collisions in Hollingdean, of a taxi skidding in Queen’s Road and a massive crash on Albion Hill.
It was also obvious that pavements had not been gritted across the city, in line with the council’s policies: “We will only grit pavements after main road routes have been cleared.”
Residents were rightly asking whether any of the city’s roads had been gritted.
What the council may want to reflect on in the cold light of day on Monday morning after the snow storm is what will happen to bin collections, postal deliveries, ambulances, etc.
Because the icy conditions are forecast to be bedding in for the entire week.
We would expect as residents that the council had at least anticipated or modelled the impact of its gritting policies on the its ability to deliver other core services, including enabling care workers to get to the people in their care over the coming few days.
Some may not be able to reach the most vulnerable for a number of days as the icy weather continues.
What became clear very quickly this evening as the snow settled or turned into ice was that the council had not thought through the implications of its gritting rota on its own ability to deliver other core services.
The council had done this before with the decision to stop using weed killer. A casual observer would presume that the council would have learnt a service delivery lesson. It clearly has not.
Councillor Samer Bagaeen is a professor of planning and a Conservative member of Brighton and Hove City Council.
Sorry, but the Transport committee has decided that all the budget should be spent on cycle lanes and hangars. Another Green Win
This is gibberish. It’s easy to find out what the transport budget is spent on and it’s clearly not all cycle lanes and hangars. The council has never gritted all side roads – ever – including when the Conservatives ran it.
But this time they seemed to have missed A roads, B roads and especially bus routes.
Rumours on social media that 4 of the council’s 6 gritters are out of action leaving just 2 for the entire city.
If a council cannot grit a road, it’s because they can’t afford it. And that is 100% the fault of the Conservatives.
Al
Ohh, how long have the conservatives been running BHCC ?
If you read the article it will explain why the roads weren’t gritted and to give you a clue, it has nothing to do with no money.
Crikey, yes, ambulances and care workers… people could literally die. I hope the council sorts it out. Can they?
Aint no sleet, snow, rain or shine going to stop us care worker. We will do what we have to do, to get to our clients regardless.
Conservatives believe in tax-cuts and small government. Not having a fleet of gritters and drivers on standby for the first Sunday in years thatit has snowed and they complain.
Maybe they’d bring in Michelle Mone to sort it out
Jon
I think you will discover the Greens run Brighton Council not the conservatives.
With the excellent record of BHCC keeping up with basic services like Rubbish and recycling and all the other legal requirements its no surprise they haven’t bothered gritting.
Mart, I think you will discover it is a hung council.
Samer Bagaeen needs to be voted out in May. He spends most of his time virtue signalling on social media instead of doing his job as a councillor.
Electoral point scoring, Prof? The whole country is nearly at a standstill. Your national party needs to hear your lecture. Go on, give Rish! a call. Roads were unusable, and buses and trains were cancelled. M11 closed for 7 hours.
I’m no Tory voter but Councillor Bagaeen does have a point here, and it’s a shame when others commenting try to close a discussion down.
Is this a further deterioration in basic Council services?
What we need to know here is how many gritters the council sent out yesterday and when.
The forecast for snow was there for all to see, two days beforehand. The snow we had here was way less than in many other areas, but some local roads became impassable.
Key hilly roads and bus routes had not been gritted and the bus services ground to a halt across the city.
On Ditchling road there was such chaos that some 80 vehicles were left abandoned, and there were some serious accidents.
The council website now says gritters were out yesterday afternoon and evening but this seems to be after the event. If some of the gritting vehicles are out of action, then why is that?
Which ‘ring-fenced’ budget can they blame this time?
The knock on effect of NOT gritting roads is often even more costly.
(And here in Hove we’ve not had our bins emptied this Monday morning).
And just how does this councillor suggest we should pay for the gritters we need on the very rare occasions when they might be needed. Let’s not forget that it’s his party which has been in power for the past 13 years and cut the spending of all councils on essential services to the bone.
Smiley DHove
Hmm, funny you should speak of essential service’s, where’s the rubbish and recycling every week that we pay for ?
You waffle on about ‘cuts’, so spending money on bike hubs, LTN and Hove Lawns are essential services are they ?
Don’t make me laugh, we can all see this shower of a council are not fit and couldn’t run a bath.
What’s apparent is that seemingly intelligent people simply fail to grasp that accumulations can occur to a point where pre-treatments become ineffective. Rock salt, yes the very same stuff you pour over your chips, is a common material used in this industry. The right conditions allow it to form to a salient which can assist in preventing a wet surface freezing. It can help with dispusing snow but again this will depend on accumulation levels and other meteorological conditions. It’s no magic wand. Grit is generally used after a snow event for traction – sometimes mixed with rock salt too – but again only really effective if the grit can be tracked in.
Why is this Councillor talking about the Council in the third person, like he has nothing to do with it? Why is there no mention in this piece of what actions he has taken with the relevant department to try and change things? The conversations he’s had and with whom? Or is it just easier to whinge to the local press than to do the job he’s been elected to do and improve things for the ward he represents?
He should take heed of a quote from one of the great philosophers of our time – “it’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me”
Wow! In answer to last post, it’s probably because he’s a Conservative and virtually has no say in what this council does. In response to all the whingers on this platform i suggest you keep quiet or ensure you vote Conservative at the next elections. That way we’ll get rid of the Green/Labour mess.
I’m no Tory, all the parties are dreadful as far as I can tell. At least the Councillor here has raised a local issue that affected a lot of people, and it’s really timely. It didn’t feel safe walking home from work last night, and I couldn’t get a taxi. I didn’t see any gritted roads and the pavements were so slippery, especially on the hills. My brother lives in Mid Sussex, and they’d had the gritters out. The left-whingers who comment on here just attack the author, and others, for being Tories, they rarely deal with the issue, just like every councillor, who writes just blames the Government, even though other councils have also faced tougher financial challenges, but still get the basics right.
Correct, Maisie G. Had the article been written by one of the usual Labour suspects, some of the commentators above would have been fully on board with it instead of sneering at the councillor because he happens to be a Tory.
Sorry, but what? “He happens to be a Tory”. Ah, don’t worry, then it is all fine, “he happens to be a Tory”. Not his fault, “he happens to be a Tory”. What, the last 13yrs, all forgotten because “he happens to be a Tory.” To be a tory or not to be? Your name could be I just happened to be with fed-up with Brighton politics (the national is thriving)” Rock on, Tommy!
Good old BHCC. Gritting elm grove and bear road 3 hours after the snow lol…
It drops below 0°c every year in Brighton so is pretty important that the city has a working fleet. To have 4 of 6 out of action in December is yet again farcical, add to this year’s shambles of not enough bus shelters, closing public toilets and then blowing hundreds of thousands of pounds on some bike sheds and an unwanted LTN.. Wow greens you really are hot stuff….
Not seen too many cycles on the road tho. Perhaps the locks froze on the cycle hangers ?
The stupidity of this article is astounding. Gritting the road doesn’t stop snow laying when it’s as heavy as it was on Sunday. Can he point us to a single town or city in the UK that didn’t have issues with the snow? He’s going to be embarrassed when he finds out that all the Tory run councils also had snow on their main roads. Ultimately, if he thinks there is a problem, as a councillor he should sort it with action, not by virtue signalling.
Do you suggest that he gets out there with a bin of grit and a spade and does it himself? What sort of action do you think one man can do exactly?
The author hasn’t suggested there would be no problems if the roads were gritted in a timely way. There would probably have been fewer problems though, and they might not have started quite so quickly where the roads were gritted.