Last winter people in Rochester East ward were very inconvenienced by the low priority the Council allocates to some of our roads when it comes to gritting during snowy weather. This particularly affected those living on Cecil Road, Onslow Road, St William's Way and the side roads associated with them. Can the Portfolio Holder confirm that the Council will support residents this winter and give these areas a higher priority for gritting?
Minutes:
“Last winter people in Rochester East ward were very inconvenienced by the low priority the Council allocates to some of our roads when it comes to gritting during snowy weather. This particularly affected those living on Cecil Road, Onslow Road, St William's Way and the side roads associated with them. Can the Portfolio Holder confirm that the Council will support residents this winter and give these areas a higher priority for gritting?”
Councillor Filmer advised that the Regeneration, Community and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee had asked for a report on last year’s winter service. The committee had set up a task group to review the Winter Service Policy and the Winter Service Plan. The task group, which included Councillor Godwin, was established in June 2010 and their report was presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 16 November.
Various changes were made, firstly to the policy, which in turn impacted on the winter service plan. All of the task group’s recommendations were agreed for implementation by the Director of Regeneration, Community and Culture under his delegated authority.
The main changes were around the level of salt stocks at Volker Highways depot out at Cliffe where 3,200 tons were stored and that had been increased to 5,000 tons. An additional stock of 50 tons was being held at Gillingham to enable the Veolia cleaning staff to clear footpaths and car parks in the main town centre.
Councillor Filmer reported that the Council would also produce an information leaflet and there would also be an article in Medway Matters advising residents what they can do regarding clearing snow and ice from the pavements.
In response to Councillor Bowler’s specific question, Councillor Filmer stated that these roads were already either on the primary or secondary salting routes. The primary route network was maintained all last winter. However, due to the national salt restrictions, the delivery to Medway of replacement salt did not take place and officers had to restrict the salting of roads to purely the primary routes, which affected all of Onslow Road and parts of Cecil Road which are on the secondary route.
However, the Council now had additional salt stock in Medway and also had access to an external store of salt that the contractors held in London, should the weather conditions be bad like last year, which was probably the worst for 25 years.
The side roads of Howard Avenue, Arthur Road, May Road and Highbank were all included on the Third Level salting routes and would normally be salted during severe weather conditions. For the same reasons as previously, the Council was unable to treat these as well as they would have liked to. However, this winter with the additional salt stocks, it is hoped that will improve.
Councillor Filmer stated that following the problems experienced in Onslow Road last year, a new salt bin had been installed at the junction with Amherst Road which could be used to help keep the road open during any future snow events.
Councillor Bowler advised that he was grateful for the information, specifically for some of those roads being on second priority routes. He stated that Onslow Road was one of the steepest roads in the Medway Towns and there had been a bad accident on it last year, fortunately no-one was badly injured. The Ward Councillors had been approached by residents specifically in Onslow Road and Cecil Road who would be willing, if appropriate, to have salt bins placed on their front yards. This would hopefully help with some of the theft problems across the Medway Towns last year and he asked Councillor Filmer to look into this possibility.
Councillor Filmer responded that he would look into that and respond to Councillor Bowler shortly.