You cannot image my anger being a Bracknell Forest Borough Council resident having just read the article on page 13 in the Bracknell Forest Standard dated 14/01/2010 written by Mike Pyle where the Councils Chief Executive infers that ‘there was little more that could have been done to improve the situation’. I think the reporter rather let him off the hook and should have pressed him further on the funding and performance related issues. The CE should hold his head in shame and taken the opportunity to apologise to all the residents for his failure to provide a reasonable service and not have escaped accountability as would appear to be the case from the article. After all the buck needs to stop somewhere and it is a shame that he is not made accountable.

When you compare the neighbour unitary authorities and Surrey CC one of the nearest council councils it is generally accepted that when compared to the efforts of Bracknell Forest they all performed well and managed to keep the network clear. Having worked in both the public and private sectors in Highways and Transportation and currently on the Network Infrastructure on the Highways Agency M25 DBFO Joint Venture Contract I do have some experience in providing an acceptable service, forward planning and Winter Maintenance. I understand the Councils need to keep the strategic routes open namely the A322 although in Bracknell’s case this is only in part the M3/M4 network corridor as some sections of this route are maintained by neighbouring authorities. Bracknell Forest Council were totally caught out on the 21/22 December 2009 resulting in the abandonment of numerous vehicles all over the network but mostly in the areas where descents and inclines where located together with a combination of deep snow and ice were all contributing factors although in some minor cases driver impatience.

I think the Chief Executive should have ventured out onto the Borough’s network on 21/22 December 2009 and 06/07 January /2010 as he would have seen total gridlock of the Borough which in the case of 06/01/2010 was embarrassingly reported on local television and radio. Yet again the descents and inclines were not targeted sufficiently and so escaping parts of the Borough for those willing to attempt a journey to work was impossible. Once I eventually managed to escape the minor roads and Bracknell’s area on 08/01/2010 the other authority’s roads were totally acceptable.

I reside in Binfield which was totally cut off and would have greatly benefitted from just a snow plough to remove the depth of snow on the local and estate roads. Until the snow arrived most people probably did not realise how difficult it is to enter and exit the village due to the topography. Perhaps the Council’s CE should have suggested that all Binfield residents should drive 4 x 4 vehicles which is just as silly as his statement that ‘a further 10 to 15 more gritters and 60 extra staff would be required adding further increase to the Council Tax charge of some £3m’ .

When assessing Network Needs and making a business case it is very easy to jump to the Borough’s conclusion that money and resources are the only solution. He must be living on another planet as it is well documented that both central and local government staff numbers have substantially increased during the Labour administration and that terms and conditions as reporting in ‘The Times’ have increased over the last few years by 7%. Has he actually considered costing what the adaption of the current fleet of refuge/road sweeps and other large council vehicles might cost to accommodate the fitment of snow ploughs and additional training of the existing work force to provide rota cover so these vehicles can be constantly on the network? The depth of snow was certainly a major contributing factor as the gritting process and as stated when temperatures rendering gritting ineffectual the removal of deep snow is still a priority. Regarding refuse collections once again the Borough has totally failed to undertake this necessary task. Other authorities have arranged for collectors to work longer hours and even Saturdays to clear the backlog but apparently not the Borough. The Borough should not be able to hide behind the suggesting that the collectors are all contributing to the gritting effort or clearing footways or even Health and Safety criteria. Although a gritter was spotted in Binfield the driver was very selective where he gritted and no footways were cleared by the remaining no driving refuse collection work force. The weather was not unprecedented, most authorities were proactive not reactive like Bracknell.

As most of the Borough’s network has actually been provided by the New Town Commission and Berkshire CC so I really cannot see where the council spends the Highways and maintenance budget. You find it hard to identify any major improvements other than say the new pedestrian bridge over the A3095 Mill Lane together with some safety barrier upgrades near to Twin Bridges roundabout and a revised junction arrangement on the A329 Berkshire Way at Coppid Beech. Most of the other recent improvements at the Broad Lane/A322 old RAF site and junction of Western Road/Cain Road have been as a result of 278 Agreement funding. So, I would ask again where is all the money spent, certainly not in Binfield or indeed many other neighbourhood areas within the Borough. I must therefore conclude that the majority of the Council Tax is used for salaries of an ever growing work force that whenever the going gets tough go AWOL and hide in their ivory towers and hide behind bureaucracy.

These are questions that the reporter could have asked and the readers should have enjoyed some investigative journalism rather than this important topic subject be glossed over and the authority use the media as a tool to defend their inability to provide a public service for the residents of Bracknell Forest.

   BFBC Resident

For the record, Bracknell & Wokingham Roads were too dangerous to risk so I used the trains. South West Trains did their best but with an obvious lack of de-icing equipment delays were inevitable. The guys at Martins Heron Station did their best to clear snow and ice from the platforms and bridge.

I also walked from Bracknell to Ascot in the snow to deliver food etc to an elderly relative who had been in Hospital over the Christmas period so don't try to get me on that one.

Myself and a neighbour cleared snow and ice from our road so try again.

At no time with all of the miles that I walked in the snow did I see any one from BFBC doing anything to help other than on just one occasion I saw a gritter.

If you actually believe that it would have costed £3 million to shovel a bit of grit on the estates roads then I suspect that you work for BFBC. If not then you have swallowed their propaganda hook line and sinker.

UKIP Bracknell I agree. I do not belive that any of us were put on this planet to be tax slaves to keep a bunch of no-hopers in index linked pension jobs.

   Seeing as I have been asked..

Bob W.

I agree regarding many many people who are elected to serve, seem to, after the election, conveniently and swiftly forget the purpose to why they were elected in the first place - to serve the public, who voted them in in the first place.

There are too many career politicians who spend the majority of their time ensuring they are fully briefed on their party message, rather than having a conviction and a purpose of their own. Rightly or wrongly, I believe that I'm only on this planet once, and I wasn't born to be a puppet for someone else.

Phyl, it's good that people are starting to hit the nail on the head about some of the rediculous laws in this country. From the clearing of the pavements as you mention, to Myleene Klass receiving an unofficial police warning for wielding a knife from inside her own house against potential intruders (later disputed by the police), to burglars suing householders for falling through glass rooves, and all the many others that always put peoples 'rights' above peoples RESPONSIBILITIES first.

   People have been made aware that if they clear the pavement or road outside their property and someone has an accident, they may be liable. If we got rid of this threat and made it a legal requirement to clear snow from outside your property, there would have been clear pavements all over Bracknell. I for one would have been out there working very hard!

   I read with interest the different views taken on the severe weather conditions we have encountered in the Borough over the past weeks.

Bob W - I am very interested to know if you managed to get to work on the days that we suffered heavy snowfall? If you did, then shouldnt you be thanking the Council for doing all they can to keep the main roads as clear as reasonably possible? If you didnt manage to get to work then how on Earth can you criticise the Council and their workers? As I see it, they have been working round the clock to maintain services. I understand that you may have places to be but where is the thanks to those people at the Council who have gone the extra mile to look after the elderly and vunerable residents at this time of year? Would you have offered to go out and deliver 'Meals on Wheels' to the elderley? Did you even attempt to clear the snow outside your own house or on your road? In these severe weather conditions, that only happen, say, every 30 years, please take some responsibility and stop blaming everything on the Council.

As the article states, it would cost £3 million or a 5% increase in Council tax to grit the side roads on smaller estates. This would not be accepted by the residents for an event that happens approx. every 30 years. Residents would be in uproar.

UKIP Bracknell - I completely agree with you. It is a fine balancing act and it doesnt matter which way the Council go, they will always be wrong. This is an 'Act of God' and wasnt foreseeable. Winters like this are very far and few between and I hope we dont suffer another one like this for a long time to come!

Sandyman - Maybe the Government are involved because this is not a localised problem, areas across the whole country are going through exactly what we are experiencing. There are problems in our own Borough of theft of salt so maybe they just need to ensure that all areas of the UK who are in the same situation as us, have enough salt to keep the main roads running.

Many people have given there all to keep the Borough going, from the general public helping people get out of difficult situations to the emergency services and Council workers. Instead of critising them, we ought to be thanking each and every one of them, including the Chief Exec of BFBC, for keeping the Borough going through this 'extreme' weather we have all suffered. Hopefully the end is in sight and then everyone can begin to complain about the potholes in the roads that the freeze and thaw effect has developed!!!

   Ukip Bracknell

The Council have had years to prepare for such an event. The fact that they were not prepared is indicative of incompetence and laziness. If the Council were for example to budget to replenish stocks of salt every year regardless of the weather conditions, then there would have been an abundance of the stuff. Council tax payers and Businesses will have to stump up their taxes regardless of the fact that the Council have not provided the services that they are paid to deliver. Many business have probably been brought to the brink of disaster by the circumstances and have been hung out to dry by the failings of both local and national government. All we hear from the council are pitiful excuses. They continue to recieve their wages no matter how badly they fail the public they purport to serve. The Council believe that the public are there to serve them, not they to serve the public. We need a radical overhaul of both local and national government. Is this something that UKIP would be prepared to deliver if elected ?.

   Sandyman,

Central government being involved only to the extent of offering advice / suggestion / 'best practice' (I hate that expression!) on any particular topic; in this case, recommended grit-salt stock levels.

After that, the council are or should be able to use this advice as a resource only, and decide what or how applicable it is for their local council.

I think it boils down to 3 main things:

1) How foreseeable is/was the depth and length of the current cold snap, and were council decisions made in accordance with what is/was/should have been foreseeable

2) Are weather patterns changing

3) Is Bracknell topographically or otherwise different than the median/mean in terms of its' requirements?

To be fair to the council, if their stock decisions had been reversed & they overstocked compared to what should be adequate for standard requirements, I think tax-payers would have been up in arms if a story appeared saying tens of thousands of taxpayer cash had been tied up in salt stocks just in case a one-in-fifty-year likelihood of sustained snow & icy weather occurred.

I'm not specifically defending the council on what's happened, all I'm saying is that I can see the othre side of the arguement at the same time, and it is a fine balancing act.

   Murray – Why are the government even involved? Do they want control of everything that goes on in this country ? The local council in this case Bracknell Forest Council should be strong enough to put in place a policy and procedure for their area to address extreme weather conditions and activate it when it happens.

Simple or am I missing something!!!

   The only thing worse than the show of total ineptitude by Bracknell Forest Council over the last few weeks is their stupid excuses for their total lack of ability to do the jobs that the people of Bracknell employ them to do. If Mr Wheadon is seriously suggesting that to employ an additional 60 people to help clear snow for a two or three week period would cost £1.5 million then he obviously needs to be replaced as Chief Executive of BFC. What his statements are of course are just scare tactics to smokescreen the reality that under his control, the Council's reaction to the bad weather conditions have been pathetic. I understand that the Council Sub-contracts gritting to Ringway, so why does Mr Wheadon suggest that to grit side roads the council would have to buy 10 to 15 gritting machines. Absolute nonsense - simply extend the contract with Ringway or another. The Council tax payers of Bracknell deserve better return for their money. Mr Wheadon should go.

   I am not sure which is worse, the ineptitude of Bracknell Forest Council or their excuses for their own ineptitude. Over the last few weeks what has been clearly demonstrated to the residents of Bracknell is that the Council are simply not up to the task. Yet again they have been caught napping, and have little to offer the public who regrettably have to pay their wages. All we get from them are excuses and threats of increases in taxation if we actually want them to perform the duties for which we already pay them to do. What Bracknell residents should get now is a refund of Council tax for the non collection of bins for 6 weeks the failure to keep our roads running and school closures. Then we should replace the leader of the Council.

   Unfortunately it's a fine balance between trying to plan for every conceiveable/foreseeable event, and not wanting to tie up taxpayers cash on events that can only happen once in a generation.

Given central government's advice of 6-day salt supplies, BFC were not the only council in the country to be caught out, and hindsight is a wonderful thing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8457458.stm

however, given the prediction on climatic change, should this forecast harder & protracted colder weather in years to come, it is possible that government advice would need to be fine-tuned with this in mind, though as stated in the article, if a product is only effective at minus 3 degrees, this will have limited impact.

If indeed the world is changing, we may need to consider having winter set-ups on cars, such as either winter tyres and/or wheel chains.

Murray Barter UKIP Bracknell PPC

   How Bracknell Forest Council can defend their current gritting policies and procedures that are in place for extreme weather conditions is beyond me.

On Wednesday 13th January the general public woke up and found that chaos on the roads had hit the area once again as the council had failed to grit the roads overnight. The snowfall (5 -7 cm) overnight left the A321 and A3095 main roads in the Sandhurst area covered in sheet ice to drive on. I had never seen the roads as bad as this. Gritting and snow ploughing from 10am onwards with a temperature rise eased the problem but action should have been taken before the ice was aloud to form during the night. If the council continue with their current policies and procedure in place for these conditions we have experience this winter we should all invest in ice skates and skis it would be safer.