S’no problem for the borough
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
09/02/2009
It was all hands to the pump last week as council staff worked tirelessly to keep the borough safe and moving after the heaviest snowfall in 18 years.
54 of the borough’s 56 schools were closed on Monday, 2 February and all but one were closed on Tuesday 3. Essential services for vulnerable elderly people continued and other vital services remained open, although many were operating with fewer staff than normal.
While many children enjoyed a day off school to build snowmen and sledge across one of the borough’s parks the severe blizzard conditions threatened to bring London to a standstill.
Acting swiftly on Sunday evening, Hammersmith & Fulham Council deployed two gritters in a pre-emptive strike to keep the borough’s main roads open.
However, as weather conditions deteriorated one of the gritters suffered a 3:00am mechanical failure that rendered the machine unusable. Council officials again moved speedily to secure a replacement gritter from neighbouring Kensington & Chelsea and continue gritting main roads.
Councillor Greg Smith, Cabinet Member for Crime & Street Scene, says: “Nothing ever goes 100 per cent smoothly in an emergency situation but the mark of a truly professional team is that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
In just two days, the council spread more than 350 tonnes of grit on the borough’s roads, which is more than twice the amount normally used in a year.
Contractors from Serco, who usually pick up refuse and recycling, were redeployed from bin collections on Monday and Tuesday to help the gritting effort. The switch in priorities meant residents, who would normally have had their bins collected early in the week, had to wait for a delayed pick up.
Contractors from Quadron, who normally maintain the borough’s parks, also joined the two gritting machines and four flat bed truck gritters to clear icy paths and side roads with their shovels.
Councillor Smith concludes, “When our staff were faced with adversity they rolled their sleeves up and got on with it. Nothing is ever perfect in these situations but residents can be confident that, even in rare cases like this which normally occur only once in every twenty years, we are poised and ready to act in their best interests.”
