Opinion : Grit all the roads not just the main routes

Wycombe woke up to the first real snow of the winter today.

Indeed in my neck of the woods there was a couple of inches, not enough to cause major disruption, but just enough to cause an inconvenience.

Of course there were the usual idiots who threw caution to the wind and did stupid things like driving along as if the snow wasn’t there.

Naturally my good self took grate care and acted responsibly as you would expect.

Sadly these days only the main roads are gritted. In years gone by every road, especially the side roads in the residential areas, would be treated so we could all go about our business as usual.

The climate is supposed to be getting warmer, well I assume the world is still getting warmer as after all we don’t hear much from the environmentalists these days about global warming. So surely that will mean there are less occasions on which the roads need gritting?

Why on earth can’t they grit all the roads when it snows? I can understand only major roads will be kept on if there is a little frost but when there is snow on the ground every road should be open.

Fewer treatments will mean less cost so let’s see the money spent so we don’t have to risk our lives on the roads alongside the maniacs who think they can go at full speed when the roads are covered in snow.

The powers that be may have turned off street lights, cut down on gritting and undertaken other petty penny pinching schemes but we are still paying the same amount of Council Tax so let’s see the money spent on something useful.

Maybe if the green bin collections stopped in the winter, when nothing is growing, then there would be more money to keep all the roads open and 100% safe all the time.

Another instrument of waste are the salt bins placed beside the roads. At the merest sprinkling of snow the usual do-gooders come out of the homes carrying garden spades and waste all the salt by dropping it on the roads in huge piles rather then spreading it evenly over the surface.

Of course that assumes there is salt in the bin and it hasn’t already been raided by enterprising individuals who bag it up and go door to door trying to sell it to the residents in the neighbourhood for whom it was originally intended.

What do you think?

*My next blog will be published on Friday evening around 8pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.