Islington was kept moving during the recent wintery blast thanks to the Council’s waste management team and partners ICSL Accord. Gritters have been hitting the roads at 3am to ensure motorists and pedestrians can get to their destinations safely. As a result it was business as usual on the borough’s busy roads and walkways during Friday morning’s heavy snow flurry. The council has a well developed winter maintenance plan, which caters to every eventuality. The team receive regular weather reports about predicted freezing conditions or snow, and grit Islington roads, highways, walkways and cycle lanes accordingly. Over 250 tons of salt have been spread over Islington’s roads during the last 10 days. Gritting vehicles have been deployed from the first forecast of snow or ice during daylight hours and in the early morning.A new initiative by the council sees that all water seepages reported to the council are logged on to a database making it easier to monitor them. In freezing temperatures these seepages can be an enormous hazard on the roads having this easily accessible knowledge helps the council prioritise areas to grit.Staff who normally sweep the footways have instead been salting busy footways and vulnerable locations, such as bus stops from the strategically placed yellow grit bins in the borough.Contact Islington is given up to date advice on gritting operations each day - so that they can inform residents of any potential dangers.One of the ICSL Accord gritter truck drivers, Steve Whitman, tells us about his shift on the road.“I’m normally a recycling truck driver, but when the weather forecast shows Islington is going to experience frost or snow my days start much earlier than normal - while the rest of the world is tucked up in bed I’m climbing into the HGV gritter truck at 3am. I get an alert call the night before an important gritting shift.”“At the beginning of the shift I’m given a map of Islington Roads – one of 15 gritting maps of the borough. On Friday morning I was assigned Priority 1 routes – the most well-known and busy roads of the borough. This means making sure all the major highways are salted so that traffic can safely pass along the roads in the dangerous conditions. This route sees me grit Junction Road, Brecknock Road, Camden Road and Parkhurst Road amongst others. The grit is stored in the back of the truck and I carefully distribute it and ensure that the rate of spread’ is sufficient to provide a level of grip and to disperse any lying ice, frost or snow.”By 4.30am I’m back at the depot to pick up another map, refill the truck and I’m off on my second run within 20 minutes.At 6am it’s back to the depot again and a stop for breakfast in Caledonian Road. It’s starting to snow so it’s a chance to warm up, have a bacon butty and have a chat to other drivers. As the rush hour begins the work becomes slower. But today the snow is really setting in and starting to settle, so we know the work is much needed and that spurs us on.”In my seven hour shift 7hr shift I’ve completed 5 maps, its tiring work but its good to know I’m really helping the community. ”Councillor Bridget Fox, executive member for sustainability said;“The council works hard to keep the community safe so I’m delighted that our winter maintenance service has proved that it is on the ball and keeping Islington moving.”“I was told that from the time a resident rang into tell us about a dangerous patch of frost outside the central library to the time it was cleared took only 15 minutes.” “I’d like to thank waste management and ICSL Accord for their hard work – especially in these cold wet conditions, your hard work is keeping Islington safe.”ENDSNOTESICSL Accord has four gritting lorries and ICSL Accord services the 200 ‘grit bins’, for use by the street cleansing teams and members of the public.
Page Last Updated: 29 July 2008