I’ll confess I’m finding the bad weather a little tedious.

There are a few reasons for this. First, the fact that it gets cold every year in this country really shouldn’t be a lead news item for days on end – but somehow it is. Second, it makes me talk about it so I become tedious.

I’m also always a little disappointed by it. Yesterday morning I was in Westminster for a meeting and it looked beautiful. But a few hours later, as the snow stopped, the roads and pavements turned into a dirty slush and the white crowns on Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster started to melt and fade it just became a bit cold and miserable. I’m not sure if the few hours of picture postcard scenery made the cold, wet walk I then had to take up to Victoria Street worthwhile. But maybe I’m just a misery by nature.

It also impacts on the council’s services, and it’s hard for the council to meet the expectation that everything will work as normal. However, it almost managed. The main victim yesterday was refuse collection – made worse because the same collection last week was the first hit by the heavy snow and a small number (around twenty) were missed for a second week (given that many boroughs just cancelled last week’s collections altogether Wandsworth has done a good job to minimise the disruption). Many of those, however, are from housing estates, and therefore the refuse is in designated refuse areas rather than people’s homes or gardens.

Refuse collection is back to normal today and teams are also working on clearing back log, so the twenty or so missed collections should be caught up this week.

Category: Wandsworth Tags: ice, Refuse, snow.
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I will never tire of using the same snow related photo for such posts. I want it to become a cliché for the blog, in just the same way that snow becomes the tired and clichéd news item whenever it happens in this country.

In fact, I’ve not that much Wandsworth-related to write about. I have spent most of this week working away performing what is known as a ‘peer review’ of another borough’s Community Safety partnership (which was generally impressive and has left me with a lot of ideas for Wandsworth). Less impressive was the performance of their neighbouring borough at clearing roads!

While not perfect – and it would be impossible to do everything – Wandsworth has coped admirably with the snow and ice. Yesterday, for example, it made over 1,000 of the 1,400 refuse collections that were due. To put this into context Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham suspended all their collections, while Lambeth collected from main routes only. The latest information can be found on the council’s website.

Category: Weekly report Tags: peer review, refuse collection, snow.
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The council is providing has an update page that has the latest information, but I thought you might be interested in some of the details from an update I’ve received.

The council has been gritting almost continuously since early morning on New Year’s Eve. The priority roads have been gritted six times since then, other roads have been gritted at least twice. Since main roads are usable and free from ice gritting operations will concentrate on the non-priority roads for the next 24 hours.

Pavements, which need to be gritted manually, have been gritted through this time and increasing resources have been put into this. However, because it is manual effort is concentrated on the high priority areas – such as busy roads and outside stations and schools.

The council has enough grit to last the current cold snap, and while it is not offering stock to other councils it have been responding to requests from the emergency services. It has also been co-ordinating gritting operations with refuse collection to ensure as much is collected as possible despite the conditions.

I have had some complaints but pleasingly have had far more praise for the council’s response. Personally seeing the area after working away and seeing some absolutely treacherous roads in other boroughs this week I’m astounded at how clear Wandsworth is. The fact is that it sometimes gets snows and it sometimes get cold and icy. The council cannot change the weather, but can do a fabulous job in responding to it.

I’d like to publicly thank and congratulate all the Wandsworth staff – those who are working do clear the snow and ice and keep Wandsworth moving, and all those who have made their way in despite transport difficulties to make sure the work of the council continues and residents continue to receive the excellent service to which they are accustomed.

Category: Wandsworth Tags: gritting, ice, snow.
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Last February I wrote a few posts about how Wandsworth had dealt with the snowfall. They seemed (surprisingly to me) well received and, as the country braces for some more cold weather I thought it might be worth repeating what happened, and what will happen again.

Wandsworth dealt with an abnormal snowfall admirably. At a time when other councils ran out of grit and salt Wandsworth’s kept going almost non-stop for five days keeping the roads clear. By the end of the first day of snowfall, for example, the borough’s main roads were clear; they were also very quiet as people stayed at home and struggled to navigate through other boroughs that weren’t as well prepared.

Once the main roads were cleared minor roads were tackled. And while all this was going on staff worked on clearing the pavements – with extra teams diverted to help in the effort.

That’s not to say what we did was universally welcomed. I think many had unreasonably high expectations – perhaps assuming we have a huge fleet of gritters and teams of men sat around all year waiting for it to snow! Wandsworth has one of the larger fleets of gritters and (as mentioned) had the stocks of grit for them to use, but clearly we balance the costs of owning and maintaining specialist equipment against the relatively small amount of use they get over a year.

The process is not an exact science and lots of factors come into play. Rain, for example, will wash away the grit and just the movement of vehicles will blow it away if it spread too early on a dry road. And the task is like the proverbial painting of the Forth Bridge if the snow continues falling.

However, as a brief outline of what we do…

Gritting is undertaken pre-emptively. Teams are on stand-by and activated if the weather forecast predicts cold temperatures or weather that might cause ice to form. The priority for roads is to get main routes cleared before tackling side-roads. This priority stays in place throughout the cold weather.

If pavements get icy a different set of priorities apply. First, a specific set of priority areas where there is a higher risk of accident and injury are gritted and cleared, for example outside care homes or medical centres. This list is reviewed regularly and additions can be made, so if you know somewhere that hasn’t been gritted that you think should be cleared let me know. These areas are regularly visited to ensure they remain clear.

Next major pedestrian routes and then the side routes will be cleared. I had a few complaints last year that only one side of the pavement would be cleared. This is deliberate, since it effectively doubles the amount of roads we can open up to pedestrians (at the cost of a slight inconvenience of possibly having to cross the road). The council will also redeploy staff onto clearance. To give an example, there is little point in having street cleaners out when litter is frozen onto the pavement – so instead they help the clearance effort.

The other issue that cropped up was whether people can clear their own area of pavement. There is certainly nothing stopping you, and assuming you tried to clear the snow and ice in good will (rather than just creating more ice) you wouldn’t be liable for any accidents.

Wandsworth has 210 miles of road and 450 miles of footpaths and pavement – and clearly cannot tackle every inch simultaneously – but I think we proved earlier this year we were up to the task of keeping the borough moving when other boroughs were not.

We can’t accurately predict what the weather will do this winter. But with each year we do learn how to deal with it better (I was in meetings talking about it for months afterwards). If the weather turns bad, don’t hesitate to get in touch if you know somewhere that you think should be cleared.

Category: Wandsworth Tags: gritting, snow, weather.
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The council is currently undertaking a thorough inspection of the borough’s roads. You may have noticed the condition of some roads has significantly deteriorated. This is largely down to the severe weather we suffered all the way back in February.

You might think this was a long time ago, but in some cases the effects are only just starting to be noticed.

Essentially, the weather weakened the road surface by weakening the bond between the road’s constituent parts. The extent of this damage varied from road to road – some roads were more sheltered so suffered less, others, where the surface was already coming towards the end of its natural life-span were damaged more.

The time is took for this damage to become apparent also varies, roads that only have light traffic may still appear to be in fine condition while those that get heavy traffic broke down much more quickly.

The council is systematically inspecting each road over a period of around three months. Where it is possible repairs are patched (and the council can do this fairly quickly). Where the damage is more severe the entire road has to be resurfaced. In Shaftesbury Ward Thirsk Road is currently being totally resurfaced.

If you know of any potholes you can report them to the council. Repairs can normally be carried out fairly promptly. Faults can be reported online at wandsworth.gov.uk/streets. Faults on Transport for London roads (usually identifed by the red lines on the sides) cannot be repaired by the council, but can be reported via the TfL roadworks and street faults page.

Category: Shaftesbury Tags: potholes, roads, severe weather, snow, Thirsk Road.
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Perhaps it’s just that I love using the snow picture.  Perhaps it’s because I rather liked the snow.  Perhaps because it’s a bit of trumpet blowing.

Whatever it is, I’ve just been reading the council’s report on their response to the recent weather and I’m still impressed with what we achieved.

The task was enormous, as the report states “if all the footpaths in Wandsworth were to be laid end to end, they would reach Prague.”  Let the council’s Operational Services department did a stirling job in keeping the roads and pavements clear.

The gritters were out from 3pm on Sunday 1st February (before the snow started) and continued until Saturday 7th February.  At their peak the eight gritters were using salt at a rate of 500 tonnes a day and by the time they had finished all “the Principal routes had been gritted 6 times, all Borough roads 5 times, all footway priority areas 3 times and all borough road footways once.”

I cannot deny I still get exasperated at the complaints from this period. It was a one in 20 year event and we still responded remarkably well and far better than many other boroughs, one of our neighbours (a prize if you guess which) had run out of grit on the first day!

I have said this before and will say it again, congratulations to all the Operational Services staff.

Category: Wandsworth Tags: gritting, snow, weather.
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I can’t promise this will be a last word about the snow.  The council is continuing to get through an astounding 500 tonnes of grit a day and is starting to move its focus onto the pavements.  However, I came across one blog detailing the change in the public mood during the snow which seems to refer to the Ashley Crescent estate (a vehicular dead-end and, therefore, mainly pedestrian):

…as the buses were suspended; as well as panic-buying in the supermarket and lots of people working in the coffee shop on the corner of Queenstown Road and Lavender Hill, I thought you’d be pleased to hear reports that community was breaking out in my part of London yesterday alongside the breakdown of infrastructure.

I’ve seldom ever seen kids playing in our (dead-end, mostly pedestrian) estate, people were helping up little old ladies who slipped and buying them a cup of tea, and I spoke to three of my neighbours which was quite a shock for the system. OK, maybe it wasn’t all street parties and sharing of resources, but it just underlines the fact that in extremis, we all tend to revert somewhat to community ideals!

It certainly accords with my sense that, generally, something about the snow made people happier.

Category: Wandsworth Tags: Ashley Crescent, Community, happiness, snow.
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Now life in London is getting back to normal in London after the heavy snow it’s worth worth reflecting on the events.

I’ve always been a bit cynical about the way the country will grind to a halt following a bit of snow, but I have to say that the past couple of days have changed my opinion.

I trudged to the Town Hall last night (walking there and back, along Lavender Hill, St John’s Hill and East Hill).  There were a few things that stood out.  First, was how eerily quiet it was.  There were very few vehicles on the roads, very few pedestrians and the pubs, bars and restaurants along the route were almost empty.  What really surprised me when I walked back was that even places like the Slug and Lettuce and the Falcon (which has it’s own staff accommodation) next to Clapham Junction had decided to close early.

Second, was that the main roads were absolutely clear.  Not a spot of snow on them.

There was a bit of discussion about the council’s response to the snow at the meeting I attended at the Town Hall.  The response was formidable.  We’d had eight gritters out since 3pm on Sunday and staff had been diverted from other tasks to help in the operation.  On Monday morning gritting of key pavements, such as outside schools and stations started – even though many schools were closed and trains services severely disrupted.

Perhaps most importantly was that services to vulnerable people, like meals on wheels, continued.

And all this despite staff shortages because people couldn’t make it in.  Having said that, there were some stories of real endurance – one council employee made it in from Loughborough.

Did we get absolutely everything right?  Maybe not; on Twitter I picked up on a Tweet questioning why we only had 8 gritters - well, how many should we get to cover extraordinary snowfall and then stand unused for months or even years on end, I think we have the balance about right.  There was even one guy claiming there hadn’t been any gritting at all easy to disprove and I think a bit offensive to the staff who have been working so hard over the past few days – it might be he actually lives in a neighbouring borough who ran out of grit yesterday.*

It was a heavy snowfall, there is no doubt about that, but I think the council did a great job in tackling it.  Yes, they had to prioritise, so the pavement outside your house may have to wait, but all-in-all an admirable response to some extraordinary weather.  All the people involved deserve congratulations.

* UPDATE:  I think I was a bit unfair to the Twitter commentator.  I did Tweet him and he replied that although the roads were clear, there was no evidence of grit (he’s deleted the relevant Tweets, so I can’t link to the conversation).

This does cause some confusion, the grit is actually a white salt, so it doesn’t show up too well when mixed with snow.  Having said that, satisfaction is still hard to come by, he also Tweeted “Well, they might sue me for libel, but I’ve been licking the roads of Tooting, and they’re not remotely salty.”

It seems our roads are failing the taste test!

Category: Wandsworth Tags: gritting, snow, weather.
2 Comments »

Theatre Street in the snow

It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that we’ve had some heavy snow in London. While it is always bizarre that London grinds to a halt when there’s a bit of bad weather, one thing it does seem to have done is put a smile on a lot of people’s faces – perhaps because everyone has happy childhood memories of snow.

But remembering not everyone enjoys the cold weather, so if you have an elderly neighbour or some relatives who can’t get around as well as they used to, give them a knock on the door or a call to see if there’s anything they need or you can do.

Posted via email from jamescousins’s posterous

Category: Wandsworth Tags: Community, Posterous, Shaftesbury, snow.
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