Ealing Council
Your Ref / My Ref / Date / Please ask for / Direct line/ext.EIR/10_992__ / 27th January 2011 / Mrs L Cox / 020 8825 5521
Dear Mr Douglas
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION REGULATIONS 2004 - INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your request for information received by the Council on 26th December 2010.
1) Please supply copies of the council's primary and secondary network of gritting routes - or alternatively provide the web links where they may be downloaded. This to include all roads designated for gritting, including the Winter Resilience routes specified by or to TfL.
Please see attached documents– Appendix 1 – Primary Routes
Appendix 2 - Secondary Routes
2) What arrangements or future plans exist for sharing or diverting gritter lorries between the council and TfL - for example if lorries on one network are snarled up in traffic and those from another could cover roads of the other?
Ealing have not made any arrangements or future plans for sharing or diverting gritter lorries between the Council and TfL
3) What monitoring of traffic congestion is undertaken by the gritting department, and how is account taken of this to endeavour to avoid gritting lorries being stuck in grid locked roads, and instead diverted onto other roads, even if this means secondary or minor routes are treated before primary ones?
In general the gritters are sent out during peak times as identified by the traffic sensitive streets list whenever this is practical. Quite often our winter maintenance officer will check a route, or part of a route, before the gritters begin their gritting runs. There have been instances where secondary routes are treated before primary routes where this is deemed in the best interest of the residents and motorists of Ealing.
4) How many gritter lorries does the council have, and how many other vehicles to deliver salt / grit-to-grit bins?
We have 8 Gritters in total and 1 with a snowplough attachment. The council does not own any grit bins.
5) How many grit bins does the council maintain?
No grit bins in the borough
6) How many gritter lorries take a snow plough, and how many of the other vehicles
One lorry with snow plough attachment.
7) Where does the council maintain its stocks of salt / grit for winter treatment?
Is it just one distribution point?
Why not use several around the borough - to shorten the distance to where the salt / grit is needed?
The grit salt is housed at the council’s depot.
There is one central distribution point. All the gritting vehicles are housed in the central depot therefore; logistically it is a better control point and a better control of salt stocks
8) What types of control do the gritter lorries have available, for example?
Snow plough ON / OFF
Grit supply ON / OFF
Rate of grit spray, dependent on vehicle speed, LOW / HIGH, various fixed rates, variable between MIN and MAX
The majority of the fleet have ECON Spargo Control Boxes fitted to them. The Spargo boxes include controls to adjust and set spread rates, adjust and set spread widths, salt-spreading indicators, salt blast function, Gritter on/off and snow plough up/down. All Gritter units including the control boxes are calibrated on an annual basis. Calibration is undertaken by our specialist service provider (ECON) and is carried out in accordance with British Standards (BS 1622 – Spreaders for Winter Maintenance - This specification deals with the various classes of Salt Spreader, the methods in which to test them for correct distribution of salt, and it sets down the acceptable levels of result to permit the issue of a certificate for a Salt Spreader)
9) What determines the way these controls are used?
The control boxes (and Gritters) are only operated by trained and competent staff. All staff operating Gritter units are trained to City & Guilds Winter Service Operations (6159). The use of the control boxes (and their appropriate settings) is based upon the prevailing weather conditions, the prevailing road conditions (parked vehicles, identifiable hazards – such as a burst water main, unidentifiable hazards – such as black ice) and overall as instructed by the clients representative (for example – which routes, what time and desired spread rate).
10) What are the instructions to gritter lorries regarding junctions and vehicles?
For example, make a number of ploughing manoeuvres to clear the junction.
Avoid creating a wall of snow from the plough across a side road.
Avoid creating a wall of snow from the plough blocking in parked or stranded vehicles.
Make extra passes along hills.
No ploughing instructions have been issued for at least the last fifteen years including the recent seasons where conditions have been more severe. Ploughing would be undertaken by trained staff if required.(as part of the City & Guilds Winter Service Operations (6159) qualification).
11) Under what circumstances would gritter lorries use snowplough only
- for example in heavy snow, to maintain snow clearance while conserving salt / grit stocks?
Please see response to Question 10 above.
Please provide an XLS spreadsheet with the following data for each gritter lorry and each other vehicle capable of delivering salt /grit to pavements and grit bins
- (gritter lorries first, then other vehicles, and showing if snow plough is attachable and if attached),
- and for the period from 15-11-10 to date,
- on each occasion when out on some type of duty to distribute salt or grit to the highway:
- some suitable vehicle identifier
- date + time vehicle left depot
- route followed in some comprehensible description - not every road in sequence is required, but must be possible to see the precise general route.
- where salt / grit is being delivered to grit bins or to pavements or dumped, state locations involved in some clear specific summary way.
No doubt the new GPS system will assist, perhaps with a list of each postcode covered in sequence?
- purpose of sortie, ie road gritting, pavement gritting, filing grit bins, or combination (state type)
- whether snow plough deployed
- date + time vehicle returned to depot
Under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 – Regulation 6 of the Act advises that if an applicant requests that the information be made available in a particular form or format, a public authority shall make it so available, unless –
a) it is reasonable for it make the information available in another form of format
Your request was for the information to be provided in an Excel Spreadsheet. We already hold the information in the format attached. This should be accessed using Internet Explorer.
You are free to use the information supplied for your own use, including for non-commercial research purposes. The information may also be used for the purposes of news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example, by publishing the information, issuing copies to the public or marketing will require our permission as copyright holder. If you intend to re-use this information in the manner described above you must apply to us.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, under Regulation 11 of the EIR Act you may make representations to Ealing to review it’s decision. Please follow the Freedom of Information complaints process: http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/council/freedom_of_information/appeal.html
Your request for an internal review should be submitted to us within 40 working days of your receipt of this response. Any such request received after this time will only be considered at our discretion.
If you are not satisfied with the results of the internal appeal you can then complain to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone:01625 545 700
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
Mrs L Cox
Information & Data Compliance Officer
Please note that this information may be subject to copyright. Supply of the information to you does not confer an automatic right to re-use it in a way that could infringe copyright. /