I must admit I like the Snow so it stays around my house. But then, as soon as it snows my car doesn’t move and I use the train.

How can we get people to shovel snow?

STW and nobody has said people on jobseekers should be doing it!?

I’ve only seen one big yellow bin of grit appear this year! Can you phone up and request one, or do the council just drop them where they think they’re needed? Where are people getting grit from otherwise?
Edit: you can get a 25kg bag from home base for under a tenner, will get one and a big old shovel for next time!

Our local council website says the grit bins are there for anyone to use, as long as it isn’t on private property. So pavements or roads are fine, but not your drive. For the drive I bought a couple of 25kg bags of grit for maybe £8? Only just finished the first bag on its second winter because I couldn’t be bothered getting grit from elsewhere to do the road. Council site also has a phone number to ring to request a grit bin if you think you need one in your area.

Don’t buy supermarket plastic snow shovels. They all break and hold up all the snow shovelling. Those black plasticky ones on the end of a stick. Proper useless, snap after a few shovels. Whoever designed them needs a proper kicking.

zilog, our local council’s policy is to cite grit bins where they have identified a specific risk, typically steep slopes, tight bends and council owned stairs on main walking routes. During adverse weather they were happy to issue grit to anyone that turned up to collect it from the recycling centres.

Kevevs never had a problem with out orange plastic one. You must be using it wrong.

I like snow. Please don’t shovel it away like rubbish.

Put it in Igm’s backyard everyone! Poly the blACK ONES ON A BROOM HANDLE ARE CRAP, Had to use them to shovel snow in ASDA a couple of years ago, they all BROKE. AVOID people! The extendable red ones with the alu handles for £8 though? You probs got one of them Poly. Posh!

Long thread and I’ve only read page one, so I’m sure this has been said… But, there are a few serial-snow-shovellers on our street. The second the snow starts lying, they’re out there sweating and red-faced, throwing snow everywhere.

Then it snows again two hours later and they’re off again. Ad nauseum.

What’s the bloody point? I can understand it if your street is on a steep hill, or if the snow is deep enough that cars can’t otherwise move but for most of us, it’s a wasted effort.

One wifie up the road keeps shovelling whilst I sit in my car waiting. As I approach, she casts nervous glances in my direction but just shovels faster, as if this is the last chance in the world for her to clear her six square metres of road. GET OUT OF THE FEKKING ROAD YOU DAFT ZOMBIE TWIT!! Maybe she thinks it’s good exercise or something? She could stand to lose a few pounds right enough.

My kids School caretaker has one of THESE. He cleared most of the playground in no time at all.

I’m waiting for Aldi to have them in. 🙂

I watched some knob head come very close to hitting my car trying to move his new S-Max on the junction outside our house on Friday night. So at 10pm I took a large Rhino tub on the kids sledge to a grit bin a few streets away. An hours work & the junction was clear & gritted. Better than siting in front of the TV. Not one miserable git has said thanks though. Tossers.

I’ve not shovelled the snow outside my house. Does that make me evil?

if you ain’t shovelling snow the economy will go down and that will be YOUR FAULT.

I’m available for Tory speechwriting 😀

Never strikes me as necessary, it’s so rare that it snows deep enough to cause an issue that people are just careful for that short time. The Elderly couple near us seem to have no issues getting about in the snow and ice, and I don’t either.

The pavements far more often become lethally slippy with ice (rain, then freezing is FAR more common) but we don’t expect everyone to go outside and thaw the street outside their home.

The bigger question is why are people so pathetic that half the country comes to a grinding halt in an inch of snow? Madness and general hysteria perpetuated by the media making everyone think it’s worse than it is. Get on with it, get over it and stop whining. If you know someone with particular issues (no legged, underweight 90 year olds) then keep an eye on them and ask if you can help out. Somewhat simpler than mobilising the entire country to clean up a few inches of snow on a pavement that few use.

Then it snows again two hours later and they’re off again. Ad nauseum.

What’s the bloody point?This isn’t what happened round here this time though, or last time IIRC. We got one massive bout of snow on Sunday, not really enough to affect anything but now the constant melting/re-freezing plus everyone’s feet/tyres in our cup-de-sac & carpark has polished up the ice to resemble a skating rink. I went for a run yesterday and quite a few pavements were in a similar condition (safer to run in the road!) so, yes, there definitely is a point in clearing & salting.

I wont clear out side my house! snow has far more grip that sheet ice. Also the fellow 4 doors up had some one try to sue him last year when she fell over out side his house (he had cleared the path)

the only way he got away with it was by saying he was not sure who cleared the path.

The bigger question is why are people so pathetic that half the country comes to a grinding halt in an inch of snow? Madness and general hysteria perpetuated by the media making everyone think it’s worse than it is. Get on with it, get over it and stop whining

Couldn’t agree more.

My dad used to commute from rural Kent up to London daily by car. We’re talking sh1tty cars like Austin Maxi, Morris 2200, and an old N reg Volvo. Stick a spade and a blanket in the boot. Only on one occasion did he fail to get to work, and that was the year (1987?) that there was a freak snow storm in North Kent. I’m talking snow depths such that cars were buried with only aerials poking out, and the army delivering food to upstairs windows!

Now everyone has far better cars that start first time in any weather, numerous traction control devices, and they’re sliding about all over and blocking the M2 when the snow is ankle deep to a mouse.

Guess the BBC and ITV have to sensationalise else nobody will watch 9 o’clock news. Oh and I guess the snow gritter drivers don’t watch that news, because the “unprecedented” amount of snow that overwhelmed their services was on the news for 4 days before it even arrived!

/rant.

I’ve got winter tyres on my car (other threads are available to argue the pros and cons of these) so I’m not interested in spending my time shovelling snow off the road, and those who do clear the road just pile the snow all over the footpaths making walking anywhere with my two year old incredibly difficult. If there was an effort to clear the snow from footpaths I’d help, but while snow shovelling remains beneficial only to motorists with inappropriate tyres, Im afraid I’m oot.

The Maxi was nothing less than ace in snow. A big cast iron lump of an engine over driving wheels with skinny tyres that had lots of sipes.

Edukator – Member

The Maxi was nothing less than ace in snow. A big cast iron lump of an engine over driving wheels with skinny tyres that had lots of sipes.

The Maxi – the first car I drove after passing my test – was never ace in anything! The only ace thing about driving one in snow was that it might get written off and my father might be forced to buy a decent car.

i’ve done the pavement outside my house, and outside the house/s either side of me.

it took about 10 mins, you can walk a good 15m along the pavement without slipping your way to A&E with a broken hip/wrist.

no other chuffer has lifted a finger.

The Maxi … was never ace in anything!

It was ace at frying your legs when forced to sit on the plastic seats in summer, wearing shorts.

Only real slip hazard here, where snow clearing on the pavement is an obligation, is not the cleared section, but the ice that build up from the roof top avalanches and falling icicles.

Cleared ours right down to the paving slabs. The snow then melted on to making this are wet and this froze over night and it was like a skating rink in the morning with fresh snow now settling on top. It is safer to walk on the uncleared snow.

It is safer to walk on the uncleared snow.

Only if it stays as uncleared snow, which it often doesn’t.

so I’m not interested in spending my time shovelling snow off the road

a) it’s good to help other people and
b) if other people get stuck they could get stuck outside your house, blocking you in.

Madness and general hysteria perpetuated by the media making everyone think it’s worse than it is

Quite obviously not. People are obviously not scared of it, cos they go out in it and get stuck. It’d help if they really were scared of it, cos they’d stay at home.

Bigger cars, wider slicker tyres, lack of regular snow until recently all contribute, but the biggest thing is the sheer volume of journeys and the distances people drive. We are more car dependent than we were 30 years ago.

Never strikes me as necessary

Right, next time I will take photos and show you.

cupra – Member
It is safer to walk on the uncleared snow.

we don’t have any uncleared snow, we do have sheets of polished ice instead of pavements.

(apart from the bit outside my house)