Winter Council Services
AS snow fell on Thursday night and again on Monday, we saw how prepared Bucks County council was in clearing roads. They have a gritting map (http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/assets/content/bcc/docs/transport/salting_route_09-10.pdf) that shows where the gritters will clear. Sadly, this did not seem to take effect as Wycombe was closed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.Gritting does not seem to cover pavements, which became increasiongly hazardous as many feet compacted the snow into uneven ruts and into smooth areas that became slippy. Even the town centre on Wednesday was ungritted, with icy areas covering the whole of almost every pavement in town.The gritting was so poor that buses were not running, and they only operate on main roads that are on the gritting schedule. Morrison's car park was, by all accounts, impossible to negotiate either in or out, so travel by bus became a preferred option for many - except that there were none! Many could not get off the side roads in their estates, so were trapped other than venturing out with 4x4 or on foot.Our postman managed to get round, arriving at around 4pm on Wednesday, having delivered 465 Kg of mail. Well done to our postie! The milkman also managed to deliver milk - well done again!But the Council could not collect bins because their operators might have slipped. (But not the postman nor milkman). We now have a gap of SIX WEEKS between green bin collections, by which time the vegetation and carcases will be crawling, unless the temperature stays at freezing. Perhaps the Council should hand over their operations to the Royal Mail or Wrens' Dairies. i would like to think that we would get a rebate on our District Council tax for non-performance of services, but they are quick to take the money and slow to convert it fully into services, so I suppose that we will never see a rebate.So, we have a shambles where what we value does not get done and what we could not care less about (eg £600,000pa on Cohesion and Equality) gets funded. Our politicians have really lost the plot.However, there will be no apology, There will be nobody sacked. Lessons will be learned and the council employees will be working hard again (but not actually delivering any results). Plus ca change, plus la meme chose.
