I’ve seen no evidence of gritters or any grit for that matter, I live in Gatley. Think Solutions SK are exaggerating their efforts.
ps what happened to ‘pre-emptive’ gritting?

Ditto, I’ve not seen a gritter on the roads in or near Romiley or Bredbury, nor any evidence that Grit had been spread. What evidence, other than the word of SK solutions, do we have?

The main roads are spread with salt, which may be less obvious that grit (as I understand it, salt dissolves into the snow giving us salty water) so not seeing grit across the roads doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done.

I’m told there was an issue with the specific weather conditions on Saturday. Salt was being spread through the day on Saturday and the rain we had on Saturday evening washed some of that salt away so it had to be re-done on the Sunday.

I can’t speak for Brinnington, Bredbury or Romiley, but I did drive and walk around Gatley, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Bramhall and Woodford.

Across those the main and minor roads were pretty clear, I didn’t come across people skidding.

As I understand it, the residential roads aren’t salted – there isn’t enough time or salt – but there are the grit bins on steeper residential roads.

Tony – really not sure what you want. I can give you my own experiences and opinions, plus I can pass on the information I’ve been sent by the Council. I’m not going to start making stuff up!

I think all “grit” is actually rock salt, or salt mix. Stockport has a stockpile of 2000 tonnes of salt, from the Cheshire salt mines, several hundred of which have been used over the last few days.

The salt works on roads by being crushed by vehicles. That mixes it with the snow and ice, melting it. The final result should just be a clear road – not lots of visible grit lying about.

I assume there are different grades. For residential streets with low traffic flow, I guess you want a mix with more sand or similar in, as that gives immediate traction without the traffic flow.

so much for the road been gritted/salted i have had to call into work and have an UNPAID night off as the roads are iced up too much for me to go in, who is going to cover my wages because the council are not doing their jobs?????

bramhall lane and roundabout and getting to them from dairyground estate you have no chanve as it is pure ice and if i went in getting home at midnight wouldnt be much fun

Tony,

You’re right that this is the worst snow we’ve seen in years and of course it’s causing problems across the whole country.

Whether Stockport should have done more is the question.

Yes, grit is salt and the purpose of gritting roads is to melt the snow/ice as traffic passes over it. That’s just how it works.

I can only offer my experiences as you’ve offered yours: I’ve been driving around the whole area over the last couple of days from Gatley to Bramhall, Heald Green to Stepping Hill. Of course I’ve been driving carefully, and I haven’t had problems slipping or skidding on main roads where the grit/salt plus passage of traffic has melted the snow and ice.

I didn’t drive along Bramhall Lane South, so I can’t comment on that particular road.

Councillor Roberts is incorrect on the provision of grit bins. According to Stockport council this week, a number of residential grit bins were removed in the summer. I live near to junction of South Drive and Styal Road, South Drive has a short steepish incline down to Styal Road and the because of the narrowness of the latter there is no room for a skid no matter how small. There has been at least one small accident because the residents have been unable to salt/grit that section of South Drive. The salt/grit bin in place nearby has been removed. It was used at least once a winter, not frequently I admit, but once is enough to justify it’s presence, the residents can then take immediate action when necessary, as would have been the case last Sunday.

well i have tried to leave my house today and skidded on the ice thats all over the pavement and roads and the car went into the other side of the road(hopefully with no damage) getting it back onto the drive was a nightmare and it had to be moved as we were blocking the whole road, we then ended up walking to where we wanted to go with myself and my son falling several times. the roads and pavements around the dairyground estate are terrible and every person i have seen and spoken to are not happy at the lack of service from the council. Its all well and good if you dont have to goto work but not all of us can sit at home and having to push a buggy on the streets with a child also holding on is no fun!!!! even though we dont live on a hill we would also require a grit bin for this weather as then we may of had a chance in getting out.

I’m just back from a drive around Gatley, including driving up the end of West Drive, so I’ve seen the problem. I’ve just been contacting the Council to see if we can get action to sort out the cul-de-sacs that are more or less the last roads still seriously affected by ice.

I do know the Council’s working flat out – at the moment Pam King and I (for Cheadle & Gatley) along with our fellow councillors elsewhere are working to help them direct their efforts as effectively as possible, espcially as more bad weather is forecast.

I have no doubt that gritters have been in action, even though I haven’t actually seen one. My concern is the lack of grit for side roads. I have been talking to friends and neighbours and the general view is that if grit were available then residents would have no problems in dealing with the problem themselves.
We could all help to protect our elderly neighbours and each other.
Grit bins sited on side roads would be less likely to be vandalised than on main roads.
Thanks for your hard work on this issue, please don’t forget about it once the milder weather returns.

Jane – you may need to blame me for the gritters. I went around on 28th December. There were a bunch of residential roads (not that many) that were clearly in need of gritting but wouldn’t be done as part of the normal routine and I asked for them to be done specially.

Baxter Park was one of those – and I was surprised how much snow and ice was still around there compared to elsewhere in Cheadle & Gatley.

I guess they came along on the 30th and perhaps you had less of a problem by then.

Gritting is still probably a good idea, though. Gritting is most effective when the roads are clear, before it gets icy. Then it can stop the ice forming in the first place. Since we’re concerned at the possibility of more cold weather, it may well have made sense to grit while they were there instead of driving off having done nothing.

Dave – I’ve never deleted any comments from the site, certainly not yours. I don’t have any record of the comment being published, so I can only assume there was some technical glitch.

Hi Heather, I’ve been up Eskdale a couple of times in the last few days and have spoken to the Council about it. I don’t know why the grit bin was removed, but it’s something Pam King and I are keen to look into.

There’s more information on this issue in a post I made a few days ago at:
http://iainroberts.mycouncillor.org.uk/2009/12/28/ice-in-stockport-now-we-need-to-tackle-the-cul-de-sacs/

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