Snow: response to call for action.
An extract from Mr. Rob Dickson’s reply to my email of yesterday:
The winter maintenance plan works on a clear set of priorities utilising resources as they are available on each order of priority. Residential roads and pavements are the lowest priority group and we will only get to these as resources become free from other higher priority activities. In that light conditions as you describe them in your email are broadly what I would expect.
On some specifics you raise:
- I’ll get Bond Road checked as I know it was an issue in December – I had thought it was on our additional “ad hoc” route which should have been treated last night.
- I’ll ask that roads and pavements around Surbiton Station and Oakhill Health Centre are checked (including South Bank).
The forecast is for the snow to stop this evening but for temperatures to drop overnight. Given that scenario we will again be treating all priority routes in the early hours of the morning and then move onto the next set of priorities. That will be tomorrow’s refuse collection rounds and as yet untreated areas as resources become available.
I hope this is helpful, thanks again for providing this information.
Call for action on snow
Having toured the ward this afternoon I have sent this email to the relevant Council officers, setting out what I observed.
I have just been for a short tour of Surbiton Hill ward and have noticed that, while most major roads are clear thanks to gritting, many heavily populated and parked roads are anything but.
This is particularly the case in Oakhill, parts of Southborough and the Edwardian/Victorian terraced streets off Ditton Road such as Cotterill, Ellerton and Douglas Roads. The roads off these such as Dennan, Tolworth Park and Bond Roads are very icy. Bond Road is white with snow around the dangerous right angle bend local residents complained about in the last snow incident before Christmas. Few properties on these roads have garages, some have off-street parking but many cars are parked in the street, causing further hazards.
Additionally almost no footpaths showed signs of any clearing measures other than human feet. This includes roads around Oakhill which are used by pedestrians going to and from the station and the Oakhill Health Centre. Walpole Road’s pavements were still white with snow.
My concern is that it will shortly freeze, turning these footways into very hazardous ‘ice rinks’.
School closures in the snow
Conservative Education spokesman, Cllr. Dennis Doe, advises:-
Parents are asked to contact Radio Jackie at 7am to see if their school is open or not. Their web site is http://www.radiojackie.com – and the web lists a huge number of schools in the local area that are closed, in Surrey, Merton, Richmond, Sutton as well as RBK.
Snow – latest update
From Rob Dickson, Service Director Environment
Gritting was done as planned yesterday evening and subsequently through the night. All major routes are clear with public transport and emergency services reporting no issues at all.
Town Centre and other shopping areas have been gritted and further work is being done now as street cleaning crews come on duty (street cleansing is suspended).
We have grit supplies for at least three weeks of intensive snow (very very unlikely) and up to two months of normal winter conditions.
The weather forecast is for some snow during the day ending in the early evening, we don’t expect that to be heavy. We have grit vehicles on standby to address any issues arising this morning and are likely to grit all routes in the winter maintenance plan this afternoon.
Conservative Borough Leaders petition Prime Minister to protect London’s Freedom Pass funding
From the Conservative Group Leaders of London Boroughs
London’s Conservative Borough Leaders have posted a petition on the Number 10 website demanding that the Prime Minister step in to protect previously agreed funding arrangements for the Freedom Pass.
The Petition reads:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to intervene to secure the Freedom Pass by protecting the previously agreed level of concessionary travel funding for London, for 2010-11 from the proposals currently being consulted on by the Department for Transport that would cut £29 million of agreed funding for the boroughs, following the DfT’s re-opening of a 3-year funding deal in its third year.”
The Petition can be found at: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/29m4freedompass/
The capital’s Conservative Borough Leaders are petitioning the Prime Minister to intervene following Transport Minister Sadiq Khan’s decision to tear up a previously agreed 3-year funding deal for London’s Freedom Pass – costing London nearly £29 million.
London’s Conservative Borough Leaders are committed to the Freedom Pass, the capital’s concessionary travel scheme providing free travel 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on bus, tube, and most rail routes for London’s over 60 or disabled residents. Funded mostly from council tax, the Freedom Pass also gets government funding, reflecting London’s contribution to the national concessionary bus travel scheme. It is this component that Sadiq Khan’s decision has jeopardised.
Cllr. Merrick Cockell, Conservative Chairman of London Councils said: “The Department for Transport (DfT) agreed a 3-year funding deal in April 2008 only to tear it up in July 2009. Having failed to fully fund the national bus concessionary fares scheme, the DfT is making London pay for its mistakes.”
He continued: “By rewriting a 3-year funding deal in its third year so as to take nearly £29 million from London to give to other parts of the country, Londoners are being hurt by the government’s own financial mismanagement.”
Cllr. Cockell concluded: “London’s Conservative Borough Leaders have lobbied Sadiq Khan and the Department of Transport and are now petitioning the Prime Minister to protect the Freedom Pass funding it had previously agreed. That the government should agree and then tear up multi-year funding deals should give worry us all; how many other 3-year funding deals are now at risk?”
Water leak Hook Road
Just in from RBK Highways
Location Hook Road, Surbiton outside Warwick Court, near junction with Vale Road North
Start date 5 January 2010 for 5 days
Work Repair visible water leak
Contractor HS Works on behalf of Thames Water
Comment This is an emergency repair of a visible water leak likely to became ice with the freezing temperatures. Traffic reduced to a single alternative flow controlled by temporary signals.
Delays expected during the morning and evening peaks.
Surbiton Forum 