Statement on Birmingham City Council response to adverse weather:
Issued on Monday 20 December 2010
Cllr Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “All A (radial) roads, B roads and all major bus routes have been gritted at least five times since Friday night. We have an agreed hierarchy of gritting for a number of years and this has stood us well in the past and in the current period of bad weather.
“I would like to express my thanks to the gritting teams working non-stop on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday to ensure that the City was as open and accessible as possible for business on Monday morning.
“Heavy snow will always disrupt traffic and transportation as it is falling. Our programme does mean that we can recover within a reasonable time. While traffic disruption was severe and widespread our recovery on Saturday and Sunday was perceived by many to have been a success.
“In addition to the dealing with the volume of snow, the extreme low temperatures have reduced the effectiveness of gritting.
“Our focus remains keeping the main roads fit for traffic so that Birmingham can get to work and that visitors can access the city centre.
“We have been working with the bus operators to try to improve the public transport situation and have had some success in having routes put back in place.
“All areas across the country affected by heavy snow have suffered disruption and we should see the quality of the response in Birmingham in that context.
“The city centre car parks were full on Sunday, Birmingham was open for business and this shows that our programme was effective.
“We will continue to use all the resources at our disposal to keep the roads as clear as possible.”
