Snow clearing in York's car parks would ‘drain resources’ (From York Press)
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Snow clearing in York's car parks would ‘drain resources’
9:36am Thursday 9th February 2012 in News
GRITTING policies in York's car parks have been defended by the council after people and cars struggled in an ice-bound Castle Car Park in the city centre.
City of York Council said spreading grit in such areas was difficult because of the amount of parked cars and warned focusing on car parks would be a “big drain on resources”.
Councillor Dafydd Williams, cabinet member for Communities and Neighbourhoods said staff and snow warden volunteers had been working “round the clock to keep York open for business”.
He said: “Like every public body our resources are limited and we have made it clear that our priority for using those resources is to keep the main routes for vehicles, cycles and pedestrians clear. This inevitably means that clearing the car parks of snow, while important, is a lower priority than our main routes. We do respond to specific problems in car parks as they occur, but do not grit them as part of the general regime.
“It is worth bearing in mind that clearing the car parks is a more difficult task given that we have to spread grit around parked cars. It would be a big drain on our resources and if we were to make this a priority, it would be at the expense of the main routes in the city.”
Comments(13)
ISeeEverything
says...
10:16am Thu 9 Feb 12
Q&E Man
says...
12:13pm Thu 9 Feb 12
If the council want people to use the P&R then these should be the first car parks cleared.
metsaagain
says...
12:38pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Pete the Brickie
says...
12:49pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Garrowby Turnoff
says...
2:14pm Thu 9 Feb 12
rubble13
says...
2:20pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Willy Eckerslike
says...
2:49pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Garrowby lad, all the cycletrack are clear, go and have a look.
Pete the Brickie
says...
2:56pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Willy Eckerslike wrote:Not at all, I just happen to think the reasons they gave for not gritting the car parks didn't stand up to very much scrutiny. Out of interest just how many miles of roads and streets do you think they would've had to leave un gritted to do the car park roadways in York and are we really that short of grit?
Pete the pretend brickie, would you prefer it if the council left the roads untreated and directed their resources onto the all the car parks, dammed if they do and dammed if they don't.
Garrowby lad, all the cycletrack are clear, go and have a look.
Oaklands Resident
says...
6:25pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Its snowing again now so they would be right to concentrate their efforts over the next 24 hours keeping key routes open.
......& no there isn't a shortage of salt.
The argument against gritting car parks is usually that vehicle movements are inadequate to force the salt into the ice - which is essential if it is to melt.
Back and Beyond
says...
7:10pm Thu 9 Feb 12
Guy Fawkes
says...
9:45pm Thu 9 Feb 12
I notice all the cycle paths are snow bound, so the cyclists with 'no lights' are waltzing with the traffic on the main roads.
And the pavements, with the result that we've got pedestrians walking in the middle of the road in an attempt to avoid multiple fractures.
In the December 2010 snow story thread, I commented that I was taking my car on journeys that I'd normally walk, for the same reason. Not gritting the pavements seems to me crazy: it will encourage people to use cars when they shouldn't need to, and for those who don't have cars but can't walk significant distances very easily, it effectively puts them under house arrest.
jaycee
says...
10:04am Fri 10 Feb 12
retrorigg says...
10:11am Thu 9 Feb 12