Agenda item

The report informs Members of the winter arrangements for maintenance of priority streets for 2009/10 and the issues that have arisen this winter.

Chris Whyte (Head of Environment Management) introduced the report and answered questions from Councillors on how the Council had dealt with the severe weather conditions in December and January. Chris Whyte reported that Brent had an arrangement with the London Borough of Harrow to store and purchase salt. Brent had abided by government guidelines to store sufficient grit for six nights of heavy gritting. However, this reserve had been used up rapidly in the heavy snow before Christmas. Further supplies had been on order, but the weather became so severe that national supplies became scarce. Suppliers prioritised authorities in need, as a result of which some authorities in London also started to run out. The London Local Authorities Control Centre took on the role of distributing grit to those in greatest need, and Brent received 150 tonnes from Ealing and 141 tonnes from TfL. Further heavy snow fell on 7 January 2010, persisting for a number of days. Much of the remaining salt was used up, and Brent started rationing the stock going into the weekend of 9/10 January. The decision was taken to reduce the priority network. There was further heavy snow on 13 January, and Brent’s stock was reduced to the lowest level so far – 19 tonnes. In response to the widening concern over salt supplies, the government convened the Salt Cell, which sought to co-ordinate and prioritise the distribution of salt. Brent was allocated 500 tonnes, which did not arrive. Veolia had to collect this, and was able to collect 315 tonnes. Currently around 430 tonnes were in stock, which Chris Whyte reported was sufficient to last the rest of the winter. Along with a number of other councils, Brent had run very low on grit and had had to take decisions to ration it and reduce the priority network. Residents had been dissatisfied with the state of many residential roads, and these expectations needed to be managed. The situation had been very difficult, and a package of measures would be developed after a review of what had happened.

Asked why some roads thawed more quickly than others, and whether the Council could be more flexible in gritting residential roads, Chris Whyte reported that thawing depended on topography, the shape of buildings, the road surface and the presence of residual grit, and that the Council was willing to turn attention to non-priority roads if time and stocks allowed.

During a discussion of the Council’s communication strategy during the severe weather, the Chair commended the fact that he had found more information on Brent’s website than on those of other West London boroughs he had visited. However, it was recognised that some people, particularly elderly people, did not use the internet as much as others. Chris Whyte acknowledged this, but reported that the internet was the best way of getting information out quickly.

In answer to a question about the Council’s legal obligations, Chris Whyte informed the Committee that the Council was required to treat its resilience network of priority roads. Given the opportunity, it could extend gritting to other areas. For example, in Brent hilly streets were treated. Pavements did not fall within the legal requirements. Responding to a comment that the area around Preston Road station had not been gritted well, Chris Whyte accepted that the Council had not been able to do some things quickly enough. Asked about the possibility of including, for example, access roads to housing estates in the priority network, Chris Whyte reported that the network could be revised as a result of the review of the Council’s response. However, there would necessarily be cost implications. He added that there had been a number of complaints about the gritting, and these had been dealt with by explaining the situation.

The Committee discussed whether residents should be encouraged to clear their own pavements of snow, and Chris Whyte reported that the Council would welcome this. The Chair asked that the legal situation be clarified, and that the government be encouraged to include such an obligation in any future legislation. Chris Whyte also agreed to take up with Veolia the possibility of using lawn fertiliser spreaders as an effective means of distributing grit.

The Committee agreed a vote of thanks for the work that StreetCare and Veolia staff had carried out in very difficult circumstances.

RESOLVED:

(i)            that the report and members’ comments be noted;

(ii)          that the Commitee’s thanks be conveyed to StreetCare and Veolia staff for their work in maintaining the Council’s roads in the very severe weather.