Autumn 2009
Winter road maintenance service
The Council’s Winter road maintenance service provides precautionary salting on all classified roads and major routes through the towns and villages in the borough. The service also deals with requests from the public to deal with snow and ice in problem areas. The questions asked in this section were to help us ensure the service is effective and provides the type of service the residents of Calderdale need. We asked panellists how satisfied they are with the service in three main areas. The three areas under consideration were:
- in your local neighbourhood
- on main roads
- in town centres.
The table and graph below show the panellists’ level of satisfaction with the winter road maintenance service. This shows that respondents are the most satisfied with the treatment and clearance of main roads but are least satisfied with footway treatment and clearance on main roads. Satisfaction with the clearance of footways is highest for the town centre pathways. Less than 20% of respondents are satisfied with the provision and effectiveness of salt bins and piles across the Borough.
| % satisfaction with Winter service | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service | Local neighbourhood | Main roads | Town centres |
| Proportion of roads treated | 60% | 82% | 71% |
| Speed of treatment of roads | 60% | 79% | 70% |
| Effectiveness of road snow clearance | 56% | 76% | 69% |
| Proportion of footways treated | 14% | 26% | 38% |
| Speed of footway snow clearance | 12% | 25% | 37% |
| Effectiveness of footway snow clearance | 14% | 26% | 36% |
| The number of salt bins and piles | 17% | n/a | n/a |
| Effectiveness of salt bins and piles | 20% | n/a | n/a |
| Effectiveness of the service in car parks | n/a | n/a | 29% |
Please note the last 3 categories on the graph only pertain to a single area (eg. Local neighbourhood or town centres).
Prior to completing the questionnaire only 18% of panel members knew where to ring to request help from the Winter Road Maintenance Service. For future reference, requests for clearing ice and snow can be made to the service as follows:
Contact details for winter road maintenance:
- E-mail:
- customer.first@calderdale.gov.uk
- Telephone:
- 0845 245 7000.
Only 10% of respondents have reported a problem with snow or ice in the last 12 months. Of those who have reported a problem, regarding response times nearly 21% were "very" or "fairly" satisfied, just over 3% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and just over 43% were "fairly" or "very" dissatisfied, with the remainder not replying or not applicable. With regard to the effectiveness of the response, nearly 17% were "very" or "fairly" satisfied, just over 4% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and 42.5% were "fairly" or "very" dissatisfied, with the remainder not replying or not applicable. This is further illustrated by the graph:
Approximately 50% of respondents were interested in receiving further information about the Winter Road Maintenance Service with the majority (65%) preferring to receive this information by leaflet and 39% via the local press.
A wide variety of comments were received on the service, some of which can be seen here:
- “pavements extremely dangerous – forcing people to walk on road edges”
- “look after schools, hospitals and emergency services first”
- “roads ok but not very effective on most footpaths”
- “my cobbled street was never cleared and the salt bins were not topped up”
- “I am happy with the services that affect me”
- “all footpaths were dangerous to walk on”
- “there should be more grit boxes, if requested”
- “more emphasis should be given to minor / residential roads as well as the major routes".
