Disgusting. Why was the road not gritted. We pay our taxes – council rates – etc for this to happen.
I have just returned from the NW of the country whrer upto 10inches of snow fell and froze, but the small roads were useable, yes with care, but useable and not packed with “ice sheets”.

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I saw 2 of the accidents 1st hand, first a man in a Small van spun out, then a young lady skidded and went over the grass bank and landed upside down on her roof. After pulling her free from the wreckage, We waited for the emergency services to arrive, even they commented how the road should have been gritted the night before !, Where does all our money go Mr Councillor !

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Spencer – What a silly reply….

There is a bit of a difference between the tyres that are on a standard car and a lorry, Yes people are responsible, If you have hit ice you will know you cannot press your brakes and you have to go with the car and you really do not have any control…. The council who me and you pay our taxes to have a BIGGER responsibility to protect people in these situations. If it might have been you in one of these accidents I think you would have the same anger as everybody else. Think next time before you put such a stupid reply.

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Just to clarify to Amar, Spencer and Craig: Councils have responsibility for local roads whilst the Highways Agency is responsible for Trunk Roads and Motorways. It was a disgrace, but it wasn’t the council’s fault this time.

Once again: if the “Traffic Officers” of the Highways Agency bothered to put their doughnuts and coffee down and and actually get out of their expensive police car imitation 4x4s, they may realise that it’s cold and the roads need treating.

Quick to put cones up and block off lane 1 when there’s a problem safely on the hard shoulder, they seem unable to grasp the concept of keeping traffic flowing. Maybe they’re under the impression that holding traffic up is the answer to global warming?

When I came along the M54 yesterday, the warning matrix was at 50 and as a consequence, I looked well ahead, expecting trouble. I saw two things: 1) Red brake lights ahead, allowing me to change lane and come off at Tesco roundabout. 2) “Traffic Officers” on the bridge over the roundabout, (away from approaching traffic, so not acting as a warning), all warm and cosy in their mobile sofa, not really doing anything positive that I could determine.

The motorway slip-road entrance was closed at this roundabout – their colleagues, (the hard-working ones in less extravagant vehicles) had closed the motorway. So, on the basis that the road was officially closed, these “Traffic Officers” may have been more useful parking on the motorway and setting up cones, directing traffic off it rather than keeping their toes warm and gawping at the chaos that they had created, (by not gritting and by allowing vehicle after vehicle to enter the traffic queues). And as they’re responsible for traffic management on ANY road, they may have been able to make themselves even more useful by going down to the Forge Park roundabout and allowing through traffic directed from the motorway to proceed quickly without being blocked by idiots obstructing the cross-carriageway as they waited to enter that retail park.

Overpaid and pointless, these people still don’t seem to have cottoned on to what they’re meant to be doing – we’re paying them to keep traffic flowing, but they seem to think that we’re paying them to drive around all day using vast amounts of fuel to power their heated seats and pretend to be police vehicles.

And while I am on the subject, has anyone else noticed how, if there’s more than one person broken down on the hard shoulder, these brave officers always seem to gravitate to the young blonde woman and leave the pensioners and blokes to sort themselves out.

If the Tories do get in at the next election, they need to sort out this particular employee section of the HA.

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thi is typical of shropshire council and that lot in telford are not much better, they bleed us dry for taxes and then they dont even grit the roads this is an outrage

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Don’t you just love the collective wisdom of the armchair experts who would so obviously be able to do better if they were in charge?

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Pete Wood @ 13 – thank you for proving my earlier point @ 12. If it makes you feel any better, some of us have been working since before 7am. Have you?

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Bemused and Mark,

Before you try and get us all to shed tears for the “poor” hard working Highways/gritting personel perhaps we ought to just clarify that it’s all VERY well paid overtime with some classed as “winter maintenence” duties, which I am fully aware, can amount to more than your average weekly wage, in some cases, just for a few hours overtime/standby duty.

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In the know
So what you are now saying is that it is fair game to criticise because people are working overtime and are getting paid for it? So really it is not a reflection of the quality of the job but sheer jealousy?? Unfortunately that is a real issue in Britain today – the total nastiness that seems to pervade every day life. A case of I don’t get it so no one else should – especially where the public sector is concerned. Hence the nastiness over pensions we see.

Of course they are on overtime – you don’t think people are employed to drive gritters all year round do you? The LA I used to work for employed drivers all year round and then payed overtime so they didn’t have to employ speific drivers to drive the gritters when the weather eas bad. Strangely this then meant that you had people available to do the job without incurring the expense of employing agency drivers whenever the weather forecast was poor.

This saved an awful lot of money – however as you have so succinctley demonstrated this is wrong if someone is getting more than someone else – in your view obviously it should be stopped! More so if they are working in the public sector? I trust you will be able to come back with a more cost effective solution.

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No, “in the know”, it’s not my job as I don’t work for the Highways Agency and I don’t drive a gritter. I do however work for both the private and public sectors. My point was that idiotic comments such as # 13 above, together with others made by commentators who obviously feel more qualified in these matters than those who deal with them daily, are made based on assumption and poor or biased media coverage. I prefer to judge on experience and fact, and so will not comment on the rights or wrongs of the Highways Agency’s actions as I don’t pretend to know their full responsibilities.

And for the record, could you tell me where I have attempted to get you to shed tears for gritting personnel? No! of course you can’t because that’s another assumption on your part which clearly demonstrates that you are not actually “in the know” at all are you?

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Mark,

My last reply to you has not been posted for some reason but I can assure you that I am “in the know”, more than you realise.

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