General Discussion
Weather Condition
If you have an elderly neighbour or someone who cannot venture out in the present weather conditions please call on them and make sure they have everything they need. Or maybe locate necessary help.
We have a grit bin at the bottom of our hill which is now empty as we have been scattering it for the past few days. Have rung the Highways Agency on 01392 380160 to get it refilled but so far this hasn't been done. Apparently you have to go on a list. This morning a car came down the hill and went smack into a neighbour's wall opposite, fortunately there was only slight damage to the car and everyone in it was ok. With the council not gritting side roads it looks as if it's up to all of us to do what we can.
Councils all over the country have stopped filling grit bins due to selfish people using it to grit their own driveways.With such a shortage it does make you wonder about the brains of some people.
Councils don't like doing anything for that nuisance, the council tax payer. Witness the collection, or not, of our rubbish. In our street nobody has the luxury of a driveway, most people have to park on the road. That is why we are trying to make it as safe as possible. And by the way, the grit bin still hasn't been filled. Just down the road a bollard has been demolished and the council will now have to pay for it to be replaced when a sprinkling of grit might have stopped it happening.
why cant the unemployed who are able be drafted in to do snow and ice clearance with perhaps an extra payment on their benefits, then maybe the rubbish carts maybe able to get around and people safely go about normal business !!!!!!!!
Couldn't agree more, the problem being health and safety!! Before health and safety went way over the top rubbish carts had some sort of chains on their wheels, postmen had special rubber attachments to connect to their shoes, milkmen always seemed to get your milk on your doorstep, you could lie in bed and see orange lights and hear the gritter lorry scattering grit on the roads,the schools never seemed to close. Feel free to add to my list!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and while on the subject of health and safety when recently speaking to a local councillor about the use of the lovely Manor House i said I'm surprised not more wedding receptions aren't held there. The answer was someone had recently enquired about having their reception there and the answer. Afraid not because of health and safety!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a survivor from the big freeze in 1963, nothing stopped us then, snow chains as you say were used on all vehicles you could even gt similar to put on footwear, we still went to school, no problems there, as you say health and safety has bred a generation of wimps !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry PJD I have to disagree. Health and safety has not bred a generation of whimps. The problem today is the 'Where theres blame theres a claim' culture. I worked for the HSE a few years ago and they are in a position of being forced to produce, in some cases, ridiculous policies to try and dot all the i's and cross all the t's to protect everyone from potentially being sued. They get all the flak while the legal profession continue to promote their claims services, and make millions from them every year. I rarely hear the legal profession getting the criticism and derision that the HSE get! Imagine if you were walking down the strand and stepped into costcutters. You had one foot in the shop and one on the pavement you slip on the ice and you fell over and broke you leg. Potentially you could sue the following: Dawlish Council Teignbridge Council Devon County Council Devon Highways Costcutters All of the above have to, by law, have a health and safety policy, to prove they have taken all reasonable care to prevent an incident. But accidents will happen. Please dont blame health and safety, they are doing a really difficult job. Blame all those who make unreasonable claims for their own neglegence and the legal proffession who are making millions out of this. At the end of the day this weather is a rare event and do we expect our councils to have ridiculous amounts of road salt (at the council tax payers expense) for an event that realistically happens once every 30 years or so? Schools, councils etc are basically dammed if they do and dammed if they dont. This weather will last a week or so so lets just get on with it, help one another, and support those who are doing their hardest to keep things going under extreme pressure!
All i can say is well done to the posties all over the country.Out every day delivering in all weathers. When the tories/liberals/mandelson sell them off to the Germans , we can kiss goodbye to that. Its a shame those lazy teachers cant do the same.The excuse that they cant make it in to work is unbelievable.The posties tend to be the 1st on the roads after over night snow yet still make it to work, yet teachers cant when much of the snow has been driven over and melted, by the time they go to work. The excuse that many travel from the sticks doesnt wash. Posties also live in the sticks. Maybe if they have to travel so far they should move home, or work at a school nearer to where they live, or would they need to use their brains to work that out. Its a good job the rest of the workforce arent as lazy as teachers otherwise we would all starve to death.
