Icy roads

[Robin Orton]

Here is the substance of an interesting email I've just received from Lewisham's 'Transport Policy and Planning', following an enquiry from me about the poor and potentially dangerous conditions near where I live in Upper Sydenham. Emboldments (is this a word?) are mine.

Thank you for your email.

During the recent snowfall we concentrated on gritting on the primary traffic routes which take in the main roads, local distributor roads, bus routes and emergency service priority routes and roads with steep gradients. Once these were done a series of secondary routes such as roads serving schools and premises used by special needs groups and other locations with specific access problems are similarly treated.

Our contractor was continually gritting throughout Sunday evening and Monday and our secondary routes were gritted 3 times throughout this period. [Your road] is included on our secondary gritting route.

Over the last week we have laid approximately 800 tonnes of salt throughout the borough. However as more unsettled weather has been forecast, we are currently having to reserve our remaining salt stock to ensure that our primary and secondary routes can be kept clear. The Highways Agency is understood to have recently secured all immediate deliveries of salt until their stocks have been fully replenished. This is to ensure that the Highways Agency can keep the country's motorways and trunk roads clear.

Footways are not routinely treated and do not form part of the primary route. However our Cleansing Department are have been gritting footways on a priority use basis ie. major town centres, local shopping centres, footways close to heavily used areas eg. schools, railway stations, hospitals and medical centres, footways designated as "safe route to school" and other locations with specific access problems.

I hope the above information is useful.

[Barty]

...we concentrated on gritting on the primary traffic routes which take in the main roads, local distributor roads, bus routes and emergency service priority routes and roads with steep gradients.

Sydenham Road, surely a primary route and certainly a bus route, was not gritted at all when at its most treacherous on the Sunday evening and Monday.

...our Cleansing Department are have been gritting footways on a priority use basis ie. major town centres, local shopping centres, footways close to heavily used areas eg. schools, railway stations...

The pavement of Station approach, sloping downhill, was not gritted.

Lewisham Council must believe that if they tell us that they did soemthing they didn't do often enough, we will start believing they actually did it.

They did not.