Drive better, don't blame gritters, says Southend Council chief

11:00am Friday 15th March 2013 in News

Snow chaos in Leigh on Monday night Snow chaos in Leigh on Monday night

MOTORISTS should drive more carefully in snowy weather and stop moaning about the gritters, according to Southend’s council chief.

Nigel Holdcroft, the Tory leader of Southend Council, hit out after his authority came under fire for the slippery state of the town’s roads during this week’s cold snap.

Hundreds of residents took to the internet to claim the council had failed to properly grit the streets following the treacherous conditions on Monday night and Tuesday morning, which led to dozens of crashes.

However, Mr Holdcroft said the authority had done everything it could and called for motorists to take more responsibility for their own welfare.

He said: “It would be helpful if the public could be reasonable in their expectations taking account of the nature and timing of the adverse weather conditions and the resource available to us.

“Regrettably, it is apparent that many motorists appear to have no idea as to how to drive in adverse conditions, making the situation far worse than it would otherwise be.

“They also fail to believe that any proactive measures, whether by way of snow clearance or by using winter tyres or similar, are their responsibility.”

Comments(57)

perini says...
11:10am Fri 15 Mar 13

Another Councillor who has his head up his posterior - the Council failed miserably and surprise surprise not one of these over-paid, egotistical, lying bar stewards is prepared to accept responsibility for a pathetic performance.When you are getting paid 100K plus of taxpayers money you need to be transparent or resign!

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j-w says...
11:11am Fri 15 Mar 13

I agree with his point of a lot of people not knowing how to drive generally, not just in bad weather however, This is not the occasion to try and defect blame away from the gritting teams ineptitude.

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Not A Native says...
11:12am Fri 15 Mar 13

Wow... I mean seriously 'wow'

The arrogance of these ****s trying to shift the blame for their useless failure onto the population at large.

Council leader Marie Antoinette missed a couple of words out - She should have added "be bothered to" to the end of "the authority had done everything it could"

Yeah, because if one person skids because the roads are ungritted and ****ing undriveable and blocks the road for a rapidly growing tailback, then it's clearly the fault of everyone stuck behind.

Whats this nonsense about snow clearance being the public's responsibility?

Seriously, this guy needs to be removed now.

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Andycal 172D says...
11:19am Fri 15 Mar 13

C'mon! This is Southend - did anyone seriously expect a Sorry we screwed up from this Council?

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Cosmo Spring says...
11:23am Fri 15 Mar 13

this Holdcroft bloke is a serious tool

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Alice in Her Own Land :P says...
11:24am Fri 15 Mar 13

The more council tax you pay, the less you get for it.

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Shoebury_Cyclist says...
11:29am Fri 15 Mar 13

This is what you get when you vote tory.

Remember Holdcroft's words come the local elections.


NEVER TRUST A TORY.

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Not A Native says...
11:34am Fri 15 Mar 13

Shoebury_Cyclist wrote:
This is what you get when you vote tory.

Remember Holdcroft's words come the local elections.


NEVER TRUST A TORY.
I wholeheartedly endorse your "don't trust a tory" stance, but if by singling them out, you're implying that we should trust any other colour of lying scumbag, then you've lost me, I'm afraid.

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saarfender says...
12:07pm Fri 15 Mar 13

I know how to drive. The car has snow chains in the boot in case of bad roads (I don't expect all roads to be gritted). I have snow chains for my shoes too in case I need to push somebody else's car out of a ditch.

None of that helps when the roads are total gridlock. Last time Southend's roads weren't gritted and the town gridlocked, I ended up dumping the car, getting the train home (over an hour's walk to the station at the other end), and cycling back to collect the car much later.

Southend needs to either say they are a good council and can provide a gritted road service to enable residents to travel as planned, or they need to admit they cannot grit the roads, stop trying, and then let the residents equip their cars for non-gritted roads. It's a planned one or the other - not one when the other fails.

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whateverhappened says...
12:31pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Shoebury_Cyclist wrote:
This is what you get when you vote tory. Remember Holdcroft's words come the local elections. NEVER TRUST A TORY.
Come election time who should we trust ?

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Sir Peter Pantsless the 3rd says...
12:45pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Would you expect anything but an arrogant, avoiding the issue response from Holdcroft?
He's become an expert at that over the years.
Here's an idea Nigel, try holding your hands and saying "Sorry, we messed up" You'd get a far more positive response instead of the snowballing hatred you and your posse are attracting!

We are all at the end of our tethers with this councils continuous short comings.

"Council Of The Year"...more like...
"Council At The Rear"!

Failed us again (as usual) Nigel.

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DogsMessInLeigh says...
12:57pm Fri 15 Mar 13

sheer arrogance.....mind you he did get some ones parking ticket over turned last week i read.

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emcee says...
1:06pm Fri 15 Mar 13

This is a typical politicians stance when backed into a corner. The council have messed up big time on this one and the only thing they have left is to blame the victims of their c*ck up.
FYI, Cllr Holdcroft, I watched two minor bumps (no damage or injury). The cars involved were crawling at a lot less than 10mph. A lot of cars were also steering but continued to move forward, even while hardly moving. This all on a main (should have been gritted) road.
Bottom line, regardless of what you say Cllr Holdcroft, the authority did NOT do all it could. Also, it may be the drivers responsibility to keep themselves and other users as safe as possible while driving their cars but it is the authorities reponsibility BY LAW to ensure the roads are safe to use in the first place.
Remember Cllr Holdcroft, you are merely a here today, gone tomorrow politician and to patronise your electorate is a very bad move indeed and I do not think you or Cllr Cox has heard the last of this.

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WAM4444 says...
1:35pm Fri 15 Mar 13

And then he jumped back in his 4x4 with winter tyres and snow chains and was off!!!

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shaun1965 says...
1:58pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Saw a woman this morning at 6:45 texting whilst driving on the 127 and she overtook me on the inside, I could see what she was doing as I ride a motorbike. Anyone know this stupid ****: blue fiesta BL56 UUC

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Displeased of Shoebury says...
2:35pm Fri 15 Mar 13

So Mr Holdcroft are you an advanced driver who knows all about driving.
Tuesday morning thousands of drivers
who travel daily from journeys of a mile to possible 100 plus miles all came to the same conclusion. Nothing was done to the roads that morning. Mr Cox gave a statement, usual type all wind but no content. If Cox was out like I was early he would know that his road and Church Road Shoeburyness were in a bad state. I went to Great Wakering at 08.45am that day and all major roads were clear well done Rochford Council.

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hoppie says...
2:48pm Fri 15 Mar 13

How can you grit roads if they are blocked by vehicles, Gritters can't be every where at once so one vehicle gets stuck so the one behind trys to get passed and get stuck so you end up with gritters in stuck traffic. Motoways HGVS cause the biggest probelms in snow with only single drive wheels. Snow and ice drive slow keep going don't use your brakes until the last moment.

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saarfender says...
2:55pm Fri 15 Mar 13

hoppie wrote:
How can you grit roads if they are blocked by vehicles, Gritters can't be every where at once so one vehicle gets stuck so the one behind trys to get passed and get stuck so you end up with gritters in stuck traffic. Motoways HGVS cause the biggest probelms in snow with only single drive wheels. Snow and ice drive slow keep going don't use your brakes until the last moment.
Essex County Council seem to have managed based on the reports of ice free roads until the Southend boundary.

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perini says...
2:56pm Fri 15 Mar 13

hoppie wrote:
How can you grit roads if they are blocked by vehicles, Gritters can't be every where at once so one vehicle gets stuck so the one behind trys to get passed and get stuck so you end up with gritters in stuck traffic. Motoways HGVS cause the biggest probelms in snow with only single drive wheels. Snow and ice drive slow keep going don't use your brakes until the last moment.
If they had been gritted a lot earlier - just like all the other surrounding councils did - then there wouldn't have been grid-lock! That is the main point here_ roads were not gritted in time and then very ineffectively but our arrogant councillors believe that that is OUR fault and no blame should be placed at their inept ones!

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perini says...
2:57pm Fri 15 Mar 13

hoppie wrote:
How can you grit roads if they are blocked by vehicles, Gritters can't be every where at once so one vehicle gets stuck so the one behind trys to get passed and get stuck so you end up with gritters in stuck traffic. Motoways HGVS cause the biggest probelms in snow with only single drive wheels. Snow and ice drive slow keep going don't use your brakes until the last moment.
If they had been gritted a lot earlier - just like all the other surrounding councils did - then there wouldn't have been grid-lock! That is the main point here_ roads were not gritted in time and then very ineffectively but our arrogant councillors believe that that is OUR fault and no blame should be placed at their inept doors!

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perini says...
2:57pm Fri 15 Mar 13

hoppie wrote:
How can you grit roads if they are blocked by vehicles, Gritters can't be every where at once so one vehicle gets stuck so the one behind trys to get passed and get stuck so you end up with gritters in stuck traffic. Motoways HGVS cause the biggest probelms in snow with only single drive wheels. Snow and ice drive slow keep going don't use your brakes until the last moment.
If they had been gritted a lot earlier - just like all the other surrounding councils did - then there wouldn't have been grid-lock! That is the main point here_ roads were not gritted in time and then very ineffectively but our arrogant councillors believe that that is OUR fault and no blame should be placed at their inept doors!

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perini says...
3:01pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Sorry about the unintentional multi-post - for a moment I thought the Council had taken control of the web-site!

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ORACUS says...
3:12pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Just your usual blame everyone else don’t admit liability rubbish.
Why is politics always about trying to choose the least incompetent.

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Maverick06 says...
3:15pm Fri 15 Mar 13

I went out for a birthday card for my daughter at 3:30pm on Monday and walked from my office along the High Street and everything was fine. Yes it was snowing heavy and it was cold, but the roads were fine. The issue came between 4:00pm and when I actually left the office at 5:30pm and the wet roads had just turned to Black ice.

Now don't get me wrong, I think Cllr Holdcroft shouldn't have tried to pass the buck and put the blame on everybody else, but to be honest gritters wouldn't have made any difference as they would never get round all the side roads anyway.

I took 2 hours to get from my office near Warrior Square to my house in Acacia Drive due to almost every road in the borough being totally iced up.

It is also true that a lot of the people who I witnessed trying to drive had no idea what they were doing, foot flat down in first gear was never going to get them anywhere!!

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hoppie says...
3:20pm Fri 15 Mar 13

It was not just Southend that had grid locked problems the south east had them all over so and many County Councils were accused of not gritting.

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smiffy1980 says...
3:37pm Fri 15 Mar 13

No excuse for the roads not being gritted but he does have a point of people not knowing how to drive in these conditions. You should NOT expect the roads to be perfect all the time and you should have the ability to drive correctly in bad conditions. I was affected by the conditions the same as many, but also witnessed some terrible driving by some. Some people clearly could not handle the cars they were driving and therefore were a hazzard to others.

If your a nervous driver in the condiions we just had , then id suggest taking an advanced driving course or a session on the skids pads (which is great fun by the way) - at the very least, you would be better equipped to drive a car in adverse weather conditions.

The council still has a duty to do what they can tho.

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Keptquiettillnow says...
3:59pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Perhaps it is the time that compulsory winter tyres should be fitted during winter months.

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RichardAC says...
4:08pm Fri 15 Mar 13

I drove back from work on Tuesday morning at about 03.00. The roads were covered in at least 2 inches on snow and drifting a foot by Belfairs recreation ground. Not a gritter in sight. I thought to myself it'll be chaos in the morning. I'd driven to Jaywick from Chelmsford that night and the roads were awful. It's not as if it was a mystery. I did skid a little at the bottom of Elm Road but hey it was my fault, I was doing all of 20 mph. Holdcroft is a fool. And a mouthy one at that. Why are we surprised. Council of the year my arse.

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Not A Native says...
4:28pm Fri 15 Mar 13

hoppie wrote:
It was not just Southend that had grid locked problems the south east had them all over so and many County Councils were accused of not gritting.
Hoppie - own up, are you paid by SBC to try to defend them on here?
Which other councils were accused of not gritting?

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southendfanman says...
4:29pm Fri 15 Mar 13

How many times do I have to say it A) register to vote. B) Vote the Tories out. C) Vote independent . Apathy and voting will get you nowhere. 80% of the people that moan don`t vote

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firedog says...
4:41pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Shoebury_Cyclist wrote:
This is what you get when you vote tory.

Remember Holdcroft's words come the local elections.


NEVER TRUST A TORY.
NEVER TRUST A CYCLIST.
I am amazed that all those useless
drivers that are allways being slagged off on this forum,are now blaming
the weather or council for their problems
It only takes one useless driver to
create problems for everyone else.

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emcee says...
4:47pm Fri 15 Mar 13

southendfanman wrote:
How many times do I have to say it A) register to vote. B) Vote the Tories out. C) Vote independent . Apathy and voting will get you nowhere. 80% of the people that moan don`t vote
To be honest, this situation is not a b*lls up of one particular party, it is down to the incompetancies of management and the ingnorances of individual councillors.

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southendfanman says...
4:50pm Fri 15 Mar 13

emcee wrote:
southendfanman wrote:
How many times do I have to say it A) register to vote. B) Vote the Tories out. C) Vote independent . Apathy and voting will get you nowhere. 80% of the people that moan don`t vote
To be honest, this situation is not a b*lls up of one particular party, it is down to the incompetancies of management and the ingnorances of individual councillors.
True but Nigel Holdcroft is a Tory and arrogant and does not care about what the people say as long as he is control and has a job.

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RobertFS says...
6:32pm Fri 15 Mar 13

saarfender wrote:
I know how to drive. The car has snow chains in the boot in case of bad roads (I don't expect all roads to be gritted). I have snow chains for my shoes too in case I need to push somebody else's car out of a ditch. None of that helps when the roads are total gridlock. Last time Southend's roads weren't gritted and the town gridlocked, I ended up dumping the car, getting the train home (over an hour's walk to the station at the other end), and cycling back to collect the car much later. Southend needs to either say they are a good council and can provide a gritted road service to enable residents to travel as planned, or they need to admit they cannot grit the roads, stop trying, and then let the residents equip their cars for non-gritted roads. It's a planned one or the other - not one when the other fails.
At last! a sensible comment. some drivers can't cope in these sort of conditions. in these situations the first thing i do (and my children are taught the same way) is to test the conditions in an non dangerous area. i mean test the brakes etc before you are faced with a problem situation. then you know jhow much space, accelerator, brake that you need to use.
However on tuesday the conditions were very bad and the main roads should have been gritted.
no excuse!!!! it should have been done!

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Mikkel1 says...
7:56pm Fri 15 Mar 13

DRIVE as you were first taught, and you have a higher chance of NOT crashing, never mind the lack of grit in icy weather.

Last weekend, 5 died in road accidents this way, Since then, many have asked for ROAD improvements, when they SHOULD be asking for Driving Standards to be Improved.

What is REALLY needed, is a lot more Police Patrols as well.

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Pedropowers says...
8:21pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Southchurch Ave roundabout was horrendous. Regardless of how well/bad you can drive...it was impossible to actually drive at all. Credit to the community who were actually banding together to help push cars and get people back on track. Considering its on the Kursaal Estate, it was lovely too see. well done S'end.

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fatcatbanker says...
9:37pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Council of the year - who were the other finalists Damascus and Kandahar?

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gary 51 says...
10:36pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Is this Tory for real what a total ****, we can drive better if you reacted better and helped grit the roads this is what we pay council tax for,if this blue blood had made this statement in my company he would have been disciplined, or better sacked!!!!!!

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pendulum says...
12:03am Sat 16 Mar 13

Sheet ice Nigel.
SHEET ICE!
Nobody can drive on that.
It was SHEET ICE because there were NO gritters out whatsoever.
FACT!

We all make mistakes... but we don't all come out fightening, refusing to acknowledge the mistakes that were made, and blaming others.

You've just lost my vote. I can't vote for an arrogant liar even if I generally support the party he's from.

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pendulum says...
12:04am Sat 16 Mar 13

Fightening = Fighting.

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Bosniavet says...
9:43am Sat 16 Mar 13

Ok, as has been previously stated, it is not the direct fault of the elected councillors (unless, of course, they actually contacted those responsible for sending the gritters out & ordered them not to grit the roads), but it is the fault of the council employee(s) who decided it was unnecessary , or refused to go out griiting the roads during the day. The weather was exactly the same the other side of Warner's Bridge & west of thames Drive, yet the roads were passable due to the fact that the responsible authority actually got the roads gritted.
Am I correct in the belief that it is some sort of offence for an elected representative to blatantly lie to the public? Mr Holdcroft, might I suggest you & your fellow councillors either admit you have lied, or actually bother to find out when & where the gritters were out in Southend prior to their first sighting by commentators here - the earliest I believe was around 6.50pm. Maybe a breakdown of times & maybe even job sheets could be produced if we are all wrong & the roads were gritted in the same way as ECC managed.

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lottie31 says...
11:37am Sat 16 Mar 13

ok forgive me if im wrong, but doesn't grit stop the roads from icing over as the salt stops it freezing over until the weather reaches -5 but the roads must be gritted prior to the temps reaching this point? if this is correct then the gritters should have been out in the afternoon before people come out of school/work etc so the road was pre-treated before the predicted weather. everyone knew (including SBC that we was expected this weather a week before it hit) so why wasn't things done before. and all you saying people should learn to drive in this weather, i agree but even the best drivers can not drive on a sheet of ice that hasn't been treated without slipping or at least struggling to get up a small slope. if im honest on that day people were driving more carefully up southchurch avenue than i had ever seen.

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lottie31 says...
11:39am Sat 16 Mar 13

ok forgive me if im wrong, but doesn't grit stop the roads from icing over as the salt stops it freezing over until the weather reaches -5 but the roads must be gritted prior to the temps reaching this point? if this is correct then the gritters should have been out in the afternoon before people come out of school/work etc so the road was pre-treated before the predicted weather. everyone knew (including SBC that we was expected this weather a week before it hit) so why wasn't things done before. and all you saying people should learn to drive in this weather, i agree but even the best drivers can not drive on a sheet of ice that hasn't been treated without slipping or at least struggling to get up a small slope. if im honest on that day people were driving more carefully up southchurch avenue than i had ever seen.

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stopmoaning1 says...
11:51am Sat 16 Mar 13

pendulum wrote:
Sheet ice Nigel.
SHEET ICE!
Nobody can drive on that.
It was SHEET ICE because there were NO gritters out whatsoever.
FACT!

We all make mistakes... but we don't all come out fightening, refusing to acknowledge the mistakes that were made, and blaming others.

You've just lost my vote. I can't vote for an arrogant liar even if I generally support the party he's from.
I couldn’t agree more. The total arrogance of these councillors is unbelievable. Another great example is the sarcastic reply I got on this site from Cll James Courtney a few days ago in the Grammar schools are "failing" Southend story a week or so ago.

CllrJamesCourtenay says...
1:24pm Mon 11 Mar 13
Or perhaps if you gave me more than 23hrs 24 minutes to respond before moaning ironic given your username!) You might be lucky and get a response.

I’ve persevered for a long time with this lot as the best of a bad bunch. But that’s it, ‘another’ lifelong supporter gone.

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supermadmax says...
12:49pm Sat 16 Mar 13

Resign now.

Council tax's are taken from us to pay for services such as these & not your champagne lunches.

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typhoon32 says...
7:32pm Sat 16 Mar 13

Absolute disgrace!!!

I was out driving you had not gritted the roads at all! Its not peoples driving its your useless not providing a service to the people your supposed to provide a service to. I know people with four-wheel drive who could not even drive properly because the roads were sheet ice.
This council needs to get a grip and pull its self together or kick them all out and bring in people who are passionate about the job and not lining their pocket.

You made a mistake, admit your mistake, don't try the blame game, you'll look stupid!!

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EastStBoy says...
10:08pm Sat 16 Mar 13

A simple search of this clown councillor will show that he's been on a cost saving crusade.

Proposals to merge councils as part of cost cutting.

Closure of a youth centre to bypass a functional review

Cancelling of the Air Show.

It wouldn't surprise me that money was the reason why the roads were not treated and why he has come out with such antagonistic comments.

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upthefront says...
10:52pm Sat 16 Mar 13

I don't drive and I was trying to cross the road and it was terrifying. The whole road was an ice rink and I thought if I go over one of these cars could run me over as they won't be able to stop. Truly horrendous,especiall
y as they knew the bad weather was coming!!

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liseinga says...
11:44pm Sat 16 Mar 13

Watching cars having to be pushed up even the slight incline from the roundabout at Queensway/Chancellor Road so they could turn into Herbert grove showed that the problem was icy roads and not bad driving. Obviously there are always a few idiots who drive without using their head but the majority seemed to drive carefully and slowly but without the roads being gritted there was nothing they could do.

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Shoebury_Cyclist says...
9:37am Sun 17 Mar 13

EastStBoy wrote:
A simple search of this clown councillor will show that he's been on a cost saving crusade.

Proposals to merge councils as part of cost cutting.

Closure of a youth centre to bypass a functional review

Cancelling of the Air Show.

It wouldn't surprise me that money was the reason why the roads were not treated and why he has come out with such antagonistic comments.
I strongly suspect the real reason he wants to merge local councils is to gerrymander the number of tories on the council and reduce the number of Independents.

They know they are facing electoral wipeout as people use local elections to protest national tory policies.

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davek 1 says...
1:29pm Sun 17 Mar 13

I now longer live in Southend and, here in Staffordshire we did not suffer as much as you did in the recent snow.
However, I am surprised that it caught the Council unawares and the gritters were out too late. Many years ago I worked at Southend Airport in the control tower which was manned for 24 hours a day. We would receive early weather warnings direct from The Met. Office and these were telephoned to the relevant Council official at whatever time they were received even if he was at home.
Do the Council no longer subscribe to this service or was the warning ignored (perhaps to save money!).
Either way the residents of Southend were badly let down and their safety callously ignored.

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BinDipper says...
5:38pm Sun 17 Mar 13

I can drive just fine in snow thanks. On the day in question the main roads were sheet ice - that's a different kettle of fish entirely. I left the main road and used traction provided by powder snow on the side roads to get home quickly and safely. Bus drivers, for example, don't have that luxury.

Nigel Holdcroft and his mates are just a bunch of dipsticks using any excuse to shift blame on to constituents. Remember that when we next go the polls folks.

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Bernard Fatsack says...
10:17am Mon 18 Mar 13

j-w wrote:
I agree with his point of a lot of people not knowing how to drive generally, not just in bad weather however, This is not the occasion to try and defect blame away from the gritting teams ineptitude.
I saw the poor drivintg first hand as the lady in the newish mini driving behind me remained 6 foot off my rear bumper so when I put my hazard lights and brake lights on to warn her to hang back she tried to overtake where she lost control in the black ice and went through someones front wall into there garden ! ........yes the roads looked wet but it was black ice and I could feel the instability in the car and moved to a defensive cautious driving style. I still think the gritters were too little too late but it caught all unaware as the temperature dropped and Leigh was an ice rink.

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crash helmet says...
2:25pm Mon 18 Mar 13

Canvey was also terrible, benfleet wasn't much better. And they were also gritted. The short bursts of -6 degrees or more made gritting pointless.

However, I managed to drive to work without crashing. On a motorbike.

I agree with him. People need to learn how to drive. What else can you do when you can tell that tomorrow the roads are going to be ice rinks?

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davek 1 says...
3:01pm Mon 18 Mar 13

davek 1 wrote:
I now longer live in Southend and, here in Staffordshire we did not suffer as much as you did in the recent snow.
However, I am surprised that it caught the Council unawares and the gritters were out too late. Many years ago I worked at Southend Airport in the control tower which was manned for 24 hours a day. We would receive early weather warnings direct from The Met. Office and these were telephoned to the relevant Council official at whatever time they were received even if he was at home.
Do the Council no longer subscribe to this service or was the warning ignored (perhaps to save money!).
Either way the residents of Southend were badly let down and their safety callously ignored.
But they should have known.
The information is available if needed but, presumably, at a cost!

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predator 107 says...
9:38pm Mon 18 Mar 13

Southend council had tucked away its gritting vehicles for the summer. That's why they could not be deployed quickly. The council leader is an idiot for telling people to drive better. Icy roads, uneven terrain, many roads with large amount of kerbside camber, many roads with inclines and not a speck of salt because the gritters were tucked away.

Mr Holdcroft, sort the damaged roads in Southend, get a grip and grit the roads. You keep increasing parking charges now use the damned income for residents rather than to win awards and impress other people.

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gangsta_len says...
7:38pm Tue 19 Mar 13

Once again the Council show how little regard they hold us all in. Certainly worth the £100 plus that I pay every month. Well done guys keep up the good work. Also please can we demolish more beautiful old buildings in the area. I believe there a few left. Please destroy them at once and replace them with really expensive greenhouses.

The town is really looking lovely. Can we also have more supermarkets please. While you are at it can we have some more major roadworks. We really need to spend millions on saving 2 minutes journey time for people. Rather than ask them to walk, get the bus or leave earlier (or even go to a different supermarket!). Its almost like the we are doing these companies a favour by creating work for them, which is great for the economy, so nice one. Who needs old people's homes and green belt when we can save 2 minutes on a journey. Awesome.

Well done for that paving that was put down in the high street, it really held up to the wear and tear and looks like just like when it was laid. Sterling job. Money well spent guys - it makes it all worthwhile going to work every month to give you money to spend on these projects to improve our town. Well done you are council of the year. Thank god for you, where would we be without you!

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