“Snow wardens” in York

An extra 40 volunteer Snow Wardens have signed up this year, meaning a total 294 volunteers are supporting the city this winter.

This extra offer comes as residents are volunteering to support essential activities more than ever, and at a time when they’ve been never more needed.

The wardens help keep local pavements gritted and clear of snow. This year, they are also helping people make their essential journeys and take their daily exercise more safely. During lockdown, snow wardens are supporting the NHS by alleviating pressure on A&E services with people slipping on ice and being injured.

Volunteer Snow Wardens are given a health and safety induction and public liability insurance, as well as all the support and kit they need including, of course, a snow shovel. We also deliver grit to their home and send weather forecasts when the temperatures are set to drop.

Volunteers from community groups are also supporting this work, including GoodGym members who are gritting paths to keep West Bank Park safe and open.

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After the snow may come the floods

Forecasters are saying that it will get warmer next week.

With the thaw will come rain and concerns about flooding.

The worse floods in York have usually occurred when the ground has been saturated, where there has also been rapid snow melt upstream and when this has coincided with heavy rain.

We hope this doesn’t happen next week.

Meanwhile we have had some rare winter views to enjoy in and around the City over the last few days.

Salt bin locations

With icy weather likely to continue for a few more days, just a reminder that there are self help salt bins located around the city.

Click on the graphic below to see a location map.

If any bins are empty – or damaged – please report them to either the Council via this link or to your local Councillor

The same map provides details of approved gritting routes.

Weather – risk of ice

Although rain and snow falls are forecast to die out today, freezing temperatures may return tomorrow morning.

It is possible that the slush will then turn to ice.

So it may be a good time to check that your local salt bin is full?

For bin locations and details of gritting routes click here.

Then tick “street care” and the tags for salt bins, primary and secondary gritting routes.

Winter woes – time to report problems with ice

The arrival of icy weather will put additional pressures on some public services.

*Snow brings problems as well as scenic relief*

The recent snowfall, and subsequent icy road and footpath surfaces, means the the gritters have been out working full time.

There was even a promise from the Council this year that cycle path would be salted but so far this seems to have been sporadic. The Tadcaster Road cycle path, for example, was icy earlier this week.

*Click to access map of gritting routes and salt bin locations*

Some Councillors have reported that they have been out checking local salt bins. They have found some empty, some “solid” & some contaminated with rubbish

We’re not sure that this audit has been completed everywhere though.

With Council resources stretched by the pandemic, this is an activity where residents can help by checking their local salt bin and by removing any litter.

Please let your local Councillor know if a bin needs filling.

Ice and frost will also have a major impact on poorly maintained road and footpath surfaces.

We’ve recently reported potholes on Askham Lane (near the A1237 roundabout) and on Foxwood Lane (near the Thanet Road Sports Area).

There are likely to be many more examples around the City. The sooner the potholes are filled in the less damage will occur (and the safer our roads will be).

We urge residents to use the 24/7 “report it” system (click) to highlight any concerns to the Council

Time to get salt bins repaired and filled

A quick check of the salt bins in the Westfield area yesterday revealed that most have salt in them. In some cases this has been left over from previous years – last winter was particularly mild.

Most had been used as litter bins and several had been vandalised with the lid hinges broken in many cases.

The Council promised to complete a review of it’s salt bins in September but nothing seems to have come of this. No attempt was made during the summer to recover the bins for maintenance. We hope the new Council will order that the bins be refurbished in the spring.

In the meantime – before we get the inevitable snow – the litter needs to be removed and the bins topped up where necessary.

A map of the location of salt bins in York can be accessed by clicking here

Empty and damaged salt bin on Dijon Avenue still not relocated away from former school entrance

Salt bin on Tennent Road empty

Kingsway West salt bin empty

Hinges broken on Askham Grove bin

Rubbish in salt bin in Kingsthorpe

Spindle Close – full of rubbish

Dumping on the Cornlands Road park has been reported

Time to check out your nearest salt bin

The York Council has a useful – but little publicised – map available “on line”. Go to http://localview.york.gov.uk/Sites/TranStreetCare/#

It shows the location of many local services including individual street lighting columns (with their I/D number and type) plus litter bins and poop scoop bins. It also shows which roads and footpaths have been adopted for maintenance purposes.

At this time of year the map can be used to locate salt bins while also displaying the route that the gritting lorries follow.

You can get daily updates on twitter from the gritting teams https://twitter.com/yorkgritter

The map indicates how many volunteer “snow wardens” there are in the area. There are seven in the Westfield ward

Volunteer snow wardens are residents who give up some of their time to clear snow during bad weather. There are 211 registered volunteers across York. The Council provides volunteers with:

training
high-visibility vests
snow-clearing kits
insurance
grit

We know that some of the local salt bins have been filled with litter.

If one needs attention please report it at https://www.fixmystreet.com/

Salt bins – 121 fail to find new parents

The Council has admitted that only a handful of threatened salt bins have found new sponsors.

The remaining 121 bins are now set to be removed.

31 salt bins are being taken over by Parish Councils
6 are being adopted by Residents Associations
2 others have been sponsored by other groups

Meanwhile the last Council meeting heard that the total number of “snow wardens” in the City has increased to 208.

Their postcodes can now be viewed on a map (click here)

The spread of “snow wardens” across the City is very uneven.

Council gets salt bin calculations wrong

The Council has published the “scores” that it gave when assessing which salt bins should be removed.

The list for Westfield can be viewed by clicking here.

The form used to allocate “marks” can be seen here (same for the whole of the City)

What is immediately obvious from the “scores” is that some potentially very hazardous routes (including St Stephens Mews and the Grove Terrace snicket) fared badly because they were judged to be on the normal precautionary gritting routes.

In reality the gritting Lorries never get near enough to these areas to have any effect on the ice.

Meanwhile our story last month about the poor take up of snow warden posts seems to have shamed some residents into action.

Some Tory Councillors are reported as having volunteered.

This news came soon after a question was tabled at last weeks Council meeting asking whether the responsible Cabinet member (Cllr Levene) would be out and about clearing snow?

Maps showing the general location of snow wardens can be found by clicking here.

Advice on clearing the footpath in front of your own home can be found here

The Council have been out and about replacing some of the grit bins (Linnet Way, Cornlands Road) which they threaten to remove, so the right hand doesn’t seem to know what the left hand is doing.

The Council’s map of salt bin locations can be found here.

All of which may be academic as the long term weather forecast shows mild weather continuing into January!!

Preparing For Cold Weather

City of York Council says that it is is supporting Public Health England’s Cold Weather Plan which looks at ways of reducing unnecessary deaths and illness this winter.

click to access

That’s a bit rich coming from a Council that has just decided to scrap 2/3 of the city’s self help salt bins and take around 30 miles of road off the gritting schedules!

Alternative view

They say that there are between 2000 and 2500 excess winter deaths each year in Yorkshire and Humber, many of which are preventable.

The Cold Weather Plan aims to prevent avoidable harm to people’s health by highlighting the negative health effects cold weather can have whilst enabling people to prepare and respond appropriately.

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