Under control

DIRECTING the gritters. . . highways operations manager Tony Ryder studies a computerised map of the borough

Gritting chief hits back at critics

THE man at the centre of Oldham’s gritting nerve centre has sprung to the defence of the team battling to keep the borough’s roads clear.

Highways operations manager Tony Ryder opened the doors of the Lees Road highways depot to the Oldham Chronicle following claims that roads in Werneth and Coppice were ignored during the weekend white-out.

Sat-nav technology pin-points where the borough’s gritters are and the streets they have treated — down to their speed and the amount of salt they have spread.

A policy agreed by the council sets out seven priority routes which are tackled first, such as arterial roads, those used by emergency services and major bus routes. A dozen secondary routes are next on the list.

Mr Ryder said: “There’s nobody in the world would cope with moving the amount of snow we had in one go. If we do not keep the major routes going we have got problems.

“It also causes gridlock if we don’t do the arterial roads first.

“We try to explain to people that we have a hierarchy of roads and we do it in a certain way. Main routes are our first priority. About 95 per cent of residents do not live on a main roads so they do not see the lads.

“A lot of inner areas also have double-parked cars and we can’t get round. We have got smaller gritters this year, but we still have problems. If it snows, people also react and they want to get home. They gridlock the roads and we can’t get through.”

The nerve centre monitors a raft of information including salt levels, forecasts, road temperatures, cameras, dew points — a factor in frost and black ice — and wind speed which can cause drifts.

Gritters have been out constantly since 4pm on Thursday, with drivers working 12-hour shifts starting at noon and midnight. They have spread more than 1,280 tonnes of grit and covered more than 6,700 miles.

However, one was forced off the road for a couple of hours on Saturday after yobs on Chadderton Way smashed its windscreen with a missile. Tony paid tribute to the drivers.

He added: “These people are negotiating icy conditions, parked cars, jack-knifed vehicles and abandoned cars.

“We have had children throwing bricks and had a lot of abuse from residents. Last year, we even had children climb on the back of a gritter and the driver didn’t see them. Fortunately, he stopped. If he had set off at speed we could have had a fatality.

“But last year in Werneth and Coppice, people were also coming out with food for the drivers.

“I understand people’s frustrations. I live in Oldham I have got an 81-year-old mother and a 15-year-old daughter. What’s changed is people’s expectations and we have got two and three-car families.

“People’s lives are very busy. They have got to get to work. It is a very fast pace of life we lead.”