Public grit boxes, ...
 

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[Closed] Public grit boxes, grrrrr

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We had a foot of snow overnight, there's a bunch of lads on the hill outside loading up the back of their truck from the grit box, on quite a nasty juction too. Should have got a pic of the plate.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 1:28 pm
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I blame Thatcher, quite frankly.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 1:35 pm
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Luckily I stocked up from the public grit bin last week when we had no snow so nobody gave a hoot 😈

Last night we had a foot of snow and there has been a queue of squabbling folk at the grit bin all morning


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 1:40 pm
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It,s all there for the public.You have just got to be quick.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 1:41 pm
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'Big society' my chuffin' arse. 👿

I though it was there so communities could grit their own (usually residential, side roads rather than main or bus routes) roads rather than wait for the council to do it. Surely putting it in your truck implies it's not going on the street the bin is in?


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 1:48 pm
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Thought it was meant for the locals to use on the dodgy downhill junction from the side road, in order to prevent cars skidding out into the main street?

The steps in our backyard are a little icy, I'll grab the bucket. 😉


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 1:49 pm
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My grit bucket was a bit itchy this morn.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 1:59 pm
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Try some Aloe Vera, it might help.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 2:07 pm
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Its there for folk to do whatever they want with.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 2:17 pm
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Maybe they don't have a grit bin on their own street? Not every street has one, and you wouldn't want to be carrying it in your hands for half a mile. It would be a bit like that kenco(?) 100% less packaging advert.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 2:56 pm
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They're for use on public roads/pavements only, if you want to use some on you're private land then you're meant to buy you're own but not sure how many really care about that.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:10 pm
 anc
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Mudsharks spot on, not for use on private driveways. County Highways websites clearly states this, although they rarely do anything about abuse. My t*t of a neighbour takes a wheelbarrow full everytime it snows to do his drive needless to say he's non to popular with his other neighbours, as we live by a hill that has accidents regularly when it snows. He has a RangeRover sport and a X5 so cleary they must be a bit sh*t in the snow. 🙄


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:22 pm
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Could the not put some sort of dye into 'public' grit, so that people couldn't nick it and then use it on private premises? Y'know, bit like they do with 'red' diesel?


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:25 pm
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My t*t of a neighbour takes a wheelbarrow full everytime it snows to do his drive needless to say he's non to popular with his other neighbours

Has anyone reminded said t*t what the grit is there for or does everyone just tut-tut and disapprove behind net curtains ? 🙂


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:29 pm
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Dan- I've got loads over here, come and get as much as you like if you need. Some lads from the Rhondda dropped it off for me.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:37 pm
 anc
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No we just take the pee out of his cr*p 4x4's subtly trying to get the message across. At the end of the day he knows its not right so he's got to live with that if there's a accident because the bin was empty. I'm not going to get into a neighbourly dispute over it.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:40 pm
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I seem to recall reports of people being prosecuted for taking from a public grit bin last winter - think they were filling their (car) boots and got dobbed in.

The one offence where the "personal use" defence doesn't help.....


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:42 pm
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Yeah, but you knowingly allowing a criminal activity to go unreported makes you culpable in any possible accident too.

Just tell him to stop doing it, or you'll grass him. Don't tolerate selfish behaviour.

Or are you scared of him?


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:43 pm
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Cheers Ambrose, I hardly touch the car in this weather if I can help it tbh, been riding the commute most days over the last couple of weeks.

Must be some epic scenery over your way right now I'd imagine.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:46 pm
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we haven't got a bin at our end of the village, so i help myself from one of the other bins in the village and grit the t junction and the nasty bend myself. we've told the council and they're supposed to be giving us a bin, until then, i'll just sort it myself.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:49 pm
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No we just take the pee out of his cr*p 4x4's subtly trying to get the message across. At the end of the day he knows its not right so he's got to live with that if there's a accident because the bin was empty. I'm not going to get into a neighbourly dispute over it.

There you go then. If you haven't called him a selfish c*** directly to his face, you aren't doing it right.
I think you've left it too late for that now, and will need to go directly to torching his 4x4.
It's the only way to be sure.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 3:52 pm
 anc
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Elfinsafety - Member

Yeah, but you knowingly allowing a criminal activity to go unreported makes you culpable in any possible accident too

Hahaha. Perhaps on planet Elf but not in the real world fella.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 4:05 pm
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someone stole the whole bin near me as it was obviously easier than putting some in a bucket... there's a new bin now but its attached to a post by a bike lock.

doesnt matter anyway as the hill-down-to-a-main-road that its on isn't gritted at all and the bins emptied by selfish residents seconds after its filled i'm guessing as its always completely empty whenever i ride past and check.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 4:15 pm
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elf has a point you say it is an accident blackspot his actions increase this risk and yet you have done very little to preven this. i agree it is best to not fall out with neighbours but this endangers all road users and pedestrians as well. We all have a responsibility to each other on the roads. I would have words personally with him and/or the council


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 4:28 pm
 anc
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I'm the one who grits the road and reports the bin empty, so I'm not worried in the slightest. It would also be impossible to prove a accident in wintery conditions was directly down to a grit bin being empty because someone has used it on there driveway. Councils don't persue this as people just plead ignorance, so this unfortunately is a moral issue not a criminal one in the eyes of the council... I've checked without naming names. 😕


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 4:43 pm
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Got stuck on a lethal bit of black ice last year... The sort so slippery you crawl across the road. Borrowed a shovel from an elderly chap nearby and gritted the Junction, and since he looked a bit wobbly, chucked a few shovels worth on his path so he could get out of his house safely.

Does that make me a criminal too?


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 5:16 pm
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wow flaper helping an elderly gentleman out and clearing a juntion everyone uses or using it to grit your own drive when you own a 4x4 Do you really need the difference explaining to you?
Fair enough anc


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 5:24 pm
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Don't know what your moaning about (apart from not being quick enough to beat the crowd!) - I've got a public grit box right outside my drive and it hasn't seen grit for the last 2 years...looks great but doesn't nothing...


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 5:39 pm
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There's one near me but it's full of rubbish and poo bags but no grit.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 5:41 pm
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Thats nothing when ay were a lad we all ived in t public grit bin , it were a posh un with a door on it.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 5:49 pm
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our local council will rip £200+ out of your pocket if you want a grit bin and grit to go in it. Not really surprisingly that bins on public roads get emptied so quickly.

It's not like the roads our way are being gritted either - I helped push a couple of cars up a slight incline after the roads had seen snow, then sleet / rain, then subzero temperatures over 24 hours without grit. And these are local council priority 1 roads too. On the walk home from the station I watched as a land rover slid 100 yds down the road at 45 degrees across both lanes. Pretty much an ice-rink - my brother is at the bottom of a steep hill and came home to a long-wheel based transit on it's side across the road just outside his drive. By all accounts it'd failed to get up and then slid backwards and rolled...


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 5:55 pm
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It's the time of Austerity and all that...cut out the salt on the chips and use that to cover the roads and paths...


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 6:02 pm
 poly
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Ah - now our council has realised that they'll not convince everyone to stockpile salt/grit in advance, and most suppliers will run out in the "rush" so people will inevitably pinch the grit that "their council tax paid for". Accordingly they will now issue reasonably amounts for personal use, free of charge, at local recycling centres - this discourages people from using the stuff from the roadside bins which are targetted at high risk locations.


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 6:44 pm
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Ah - now our council has realised that they'll not convince everyone to stockpile salt/grit in advance, and most suppliers will run out in the "rush" so people will inevitably pinch the grit that "their council tax paid for". Accordingly they will now issue reasonably amounts for personal use, free of charge, at local recycling centres - this discourages people from using the stuff from the roadside bins which are targetted at high risk locations.

sounds sensible


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 7:09 pm
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sounds sensible

no way it will catch on then!!!!


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 10:59 pm
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would sand from the beach be any good?


 
Posted : 18/12/2010 11:31 pm
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CharlieMungus - Member
would sand from the beach be any good?

For castles, yes.

For lowering the freezing point of water, no.


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 1:04 am
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get a life. It'll melt. Life will go on.

but on the other hand, maybe you are right! the northern hemisphere will freeze over, a new ice age will begin (i'm shittingmypants here thinking about it), and the community salt bin will become a war zone! meanwhile, sadly, people die cos they are cold. I'm gonna write a film script!


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 1:15 am
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It's illegal to remove sand from the beach


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 1:22 am
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It's illegal to remove sand from the beach

Even from the littoral?


For lowering the freezing point of water, no.

Why not? Got salt and a nucleus.


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 3:00 pm
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It's illegal to remove sand from the beach

I'd challenge anyone to go to a beach and not remove sand, that stuff gets everywhere!


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 3:15 pm
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The road I live on has approx. 30 houses and a couple of farms over its mile or so length. It is a dead end leading up a steep hill. And has been gritted twice in the past 30 mins. Yay!!!


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 3:25 pm
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we have had a bit of snow so i went to the grit bin but it is full of McDonalds wrappers not a pick of sand in there


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 3:28 pm
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Local council has just sent a Transit tipper spreading grit around the side roads and a proper yellow gritting wagon along the main roads on our estate. Never seen that before in the 16 years we've lived here on the occasions we've had snow. Wife reckons a local councillor must have moved onto the estate somewhere, or the council is getting sued by someone.
Gritted my driveway with stuff from B&Q, wanted to avoid the glazed ice that we had in January last year. Bought it a few weeks ago before people started panicking about it, but the local B&Q still had some in yesterday.


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 3:46 pm
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I'm quite lucky. Even though I live at the top of a hill the head of services at the local council lives on the same street as me and the grit bin always seems well stocked as a result. He was even out gritting the road this morning to help out the neighbours; proof that some council workers do earn their keep.

I actually bought a couple of bags of rock salt from Wickes in October just in case the public bins near me ever run out. I share a long driveway with two other properties and it seemed the only sensible thing to do. We were all out yesterday morning shifting the snow from the street and gritting before everything froze overnight. Be nice if everybody took that approach.


 
Posted : 19/12/2010 4:02 pm

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