Web Forum: True grit

Jan 6 2010 by Andrew Jackson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MONDAY’S Examiner reported that Kirklees Council only has two days of grit left.

Ghengis asked: “Anyone want to comment on how we’ve run out of grit already?”

StephB wondered: “Do I misremember, but weren’t they boasting of having an adequate supply of five days’ worth? Or was that the contract for snow clearing? Let’s see, it’s now January 3. Yes, that should do it, there shouldn’t be any more to come now ...”

markmyword49 hoped action would be taken: “It would be just their luck that on the day there is the annual mass return to work and school after the Christmas/New Year shutdown there would be significant snowfalls and extremely low temperatures overnight forecast to continue for most of the week.

“I trust that someone ‘high up’ in the Kirklees bureaucracy and our elected leader go back to central Government and the Local Government Association and point out that conditions in Kirklees (and all authorities with high ground) can differ dramatically from one settlement to another.

“The ‘one size fits all’ approach being propounded by both central Government, ‘local’ officials and ‘local’ councillors who do not live or work in these areas is yet another reason why authorities such as Kirklees are too big both geographically and economically to react positively to local needs.”

AndyA fumed: “Cold weather and snow in January is not ‘bad luck’! That’s pathetic!”

markmyword felt for the council: “But Clr David Sheard says they already had 50% (10,000 tonnes) more stock this year than last. “I actually have some sympathy for Kirklees this year. Normally very cold snaps do not last (even in January) for more than two or three days over the whole of the country as is the case this season. Consequently, the pressure on the suppliers of grit is normally manageable. “However, with councils the length and breadth of the country having run down or minimised their stocks in response to incorrect forecasts and medium term historic trends, this means supplies cannot keep up with demand when nature does the unexpected.

“All it goes to prove is that the ‘just in time’ systems of replenishment work wonderfully where demand can be accurately forecast. However, where nature is involved, forecasting is still in its infancy and ‘it’s better to be safe than sorry’. Something Kirklees and other councils should have remembered when they decided to take gritting/ploughing back ‘in house’.”