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SNOW: Do not travel unless absolutely essential - fire chief (From Oxford Mail)
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SNOW: Do not travel unless absolutely essential - fire chief
10:15pm Tuesday 5th January 2010
OXFORDSHIRE'S deputy chief fire officer Dave Etheridge tonight warned residents not to attempt any non-essential journeys, due to the heavy snow falling in the county.
He said: "The best advice we can give people now is not to travel unless you absolutely have to."
"For those residents who are elderly or infirm, it's important to make contact with friends, family and neighbours and let them know if you need anything.
"I would also ask Oxfordshire residents who live near older people, or those with physical or other support needs, to pay them a visit tonight and let them know you're there."
A number of roads are impassable due to snow, including the A40 Oxford Northern Bypass between the Cutteslowe roundabout and the Green Road roundabout at Headington, as well as the Marston sliproads off the bypass. Snowplough teams are attempting to clear these roads.
Hanney Road in Steventon is impassable and driving conditions on the A4260 at Deddington and the A361 Chipping Norton to Banbury road at Swerford are described as hazardous.
Due to the severity of the snowfall, the county council's highways department is concentrating its snowplough and salting operations on the county's key roads, about 30 per cent of the total road mileage, rather than the 43 per cent of roads covered by normal operations to deal with ice.
Council leader Keith Mitchell said: "Our advice remains the same, regardless of the number of roads treated by the council. It is simple advice that most people will intuitively deploy without the need for reminders from councils and that has served people well through many decades of bad winters.
"We would simply ask people to take extra care on icy paths and roads and stay away from water covered in ice.
"It is a common sense message that if people drive and walk to suit the conditions and take sensible judgments about whether journeys are necessary, the risk of accidents will be cut down."
For the latest information, see the county council's website and oxfordmail.co.uk's travel news page
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Your Say YourOxford
jimm, oxon says...
12:22am Wed 6 Jan 10
mechcol wrote:If you go out laying salt in this volume of snow, all that happens is it melts a bit of the snow, which then carries the diluted salt away down the nearest drain.
Oxfordshire County Council has slashed the amount of roads it will grit despite the severity of the snowfall.
It blamed "increasing restrictions upon national supplies of salt to local authorities" for only gritting 29% of roads instead of its usual 43%.
Salt's key function is to melt ice and stop ice forming - it will not clear heavy snow falling at the rate it is coming down tonight.
The stocks the county has will be far better used over the next few days to deal with the ice casued by the snow melting.
Bogota Bob, Fish Street says...
7:41am Wed 6 Jan 10
jimm wrote:Well said, why can't some of the knuckleheads on here think before putting their stupid ill formed opinions down on here.
mechcol wrote: Oxfordshire County Council has slashed the amount of roads it will grit despite the severity of the snowfall. It blamed "increasing restrictions upon national supplies of salt to local authorities" for only gritting 29% of roads instead of its usual 43%.If you go out laying salt in this volume of snow, all that happens is it melts a bit of the snow, which then carries the diluted salt away down the nearest drain. Salt's key function is to melt ice and stop ice forming - it will not clear heavy snow falling at the rate it is coming down tonight. The stocks the county has will be far better used over the next few days to deal with the ice casued by the snow melting.
john101, oxford says...
9:19am Wed 6 Jan 10
Bogota Bob wrote:got a point though, they did not cut back salting years ago ,it was called a plough and then salt ,been out today and most roads have not even been touched ,how do they expect people to get to these so called main roads if they cant even get out of there residential area? and yes all them years ago when snow was about alot more roads where ploughed in my area..
jimm wrote:Well said, why can't some of the knuckleheads on here think before putting their stupid ill formed opinions down on here.mechcol wrote: Oxfordshire County Council has slashed the amount of roads it will grit despite the severity of the snowfall. It blamed "increasing restrictions upon national supplies of salt to local authorities" for only gritting 29% of roads instead of its usual 43%.If you go out laying salt in this volume of snow, all that happens is it melts a bit of the snow, which then carries the diluted salt away down the nearest drain. Salt's key function is to melt ice and stop ice forming - it will not clear heavy snow falling at the rate it is coming down tonight. The stocks the county has will be far better used over the next few days to deal with the ice casued by the snow melting.
Picture: Sue Halliwell
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mechcol, Oxford says...
10:54pm Tue 5 Jan 10
It blamed "increasing restrictions upon national supplies of salt to local authorities" for only gritting 29% of roads instead of its usual 43%.