A CambsNews reader says he couldn’t believe it when he spotted a council-owned lorry driving along a busy street spreading salt but with one half of his vehicle on a footpath and the other half on the road. The pictures were taken just before 8am on Saturday (December 2) when it was still foggy and dark.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “There was no one on the footpath at the time but suppose there was?. What would have happened if someone suddenly stepped onto it and there was this gritter lorry approaching?”
Our photographs show a sequence along Bourges Boulevard in Peterborough and were taken on a morning when temperatures were below freezing.
Peterborough City Council says on their website that “gritting usually takes place late at night or very early in the morning and is timed to ensure the whole network is treated before road surface temperatures fall below zero.
“As a rule, the latest treatments of the precautionary network to ensure full coverage before rush hour is 4am.
“This would mean drivers would have been in the depot preparing their vehicle and loading from 3am.”}
Their website adds: “You can keep up to date with gritting updates by following us on Twitter.”
However today there has been no updates on their Twitter feed about gritting.
On footpaths. Or main roads.
Peterborough City Council says it stores 3,500 tonnes of salt at its contractor’s depot at the beginning of the season and replenishes stocks as the season progresses.
“The council cannot undertake to supply private individuals with salt,” says the council.
“Local builder’s merchants and other suppliers usually sell rock salt for private use.”
