One inch of snow - Dublin closed

Everyone prays it'll snow until it does and then were all up in arms..

they didn't even grit the roads, busus cancelled, f-all transport, what a stupid country we live in :|

^ was just thinking the same thing - national shortage of **ing grit is there. incredible

Didnt venture out new yrs eve, but apparently there were no taxi's to be had in Dublin, know of 4 different ppl that had 3hr waits for one.

went out had a good night but if i had to i would walk 5/6 miles home from a pub, taxis rip us off anyway
There is a big housing estate locally 300 houses, the residents gritted all their own roads themselves

Do the councils down here leave out grit in rural areas?
They do that up north, locals, usually farmer then get the shovels out and spread it on bad bends & hills etc.
The fkn County Councils down here are a fkn joke!

i have seen grit left at hills, bends etc, but with the way the laws work down here (ignoring common sence etc) i dont know too many farmers that would expose themselves to any liabilities by doin the councils job.

Cuts were demanded by the private sector, they got them.
Council staff in a certain area offered to grit over the holidays, some wanted pay others happy to take leave in lieu, responce was we dont have the finances and we will discuss this on Jan 4th.

:D Any opportunity at all at all at all.

Its disgusting laziness that the motorways havent been gritted. Do we need to wait till a few young families who were forced outside the Dublin area away from their homes are killed on the main roads from Wexford, Cavan, Louth commuting to their relatives in the city.

What these kuntz get away with is mind boggling.

We have a small crossroads on a hill near the house and the council had no problem leaving a small trailer of grit at it for us.
We throw a few shovel fulls in the morning and evening and no problems there all week..................other people in the area doing the same...
Saves pulling cars out of the ditch at all hours..........

So what's next - leave our post at the sorting office for people to collect or give us a few books so we can teach our own kids.

The county councils are obliged (AFAIK) to grit the roads - leaving grit in a trailer at the end of a road is not acceptable.

The County Councils may be as you say obliged to grit our roads, but you can not cut peoples wages and then expect them to be patriotic and work for free.
The chap that delivered the grit told me his hours were 0830 to 1630 but offered to start gritting at 0700 (some people going to work) and finish at 1500, the answer was no.

Thats were i lose respect for these so called "public-servants" Gant.
I can understand they're annoyed about cuts, but when they are putting the lives of people at risk, i have no sympathy for them, should be made to come it at 5am and grit the roads!!

But the post above said they where willing to go to work early once they could finish early. That seems fair to me but the council would not allow it, thats down to the council not the workforce, they should not have to work for free, because the council don't give 2 f00ks about people's safety.

well said awesome impact

downallstar its not a public /private sector argument
To me the county councils have wasted piles of money over the years and they still do foreign junkets while they have no money.
They should grit the roads full stop , and worry about the money later, if people die on our roads or the economy stops then whats the cost???????
The guys who work on our roads for co.councils have a bad reputation, they are not the hardest workers in the world and frequently are seen having lunch extra long lunch breaks or wet time or taking their time doing their job
First we had the floods that decimated peoples homes and now they cant get out of the house due to non gritting , ridiculous

Fair enough, misread that post.
But those in charge should be strung up if anyone gets killed due to a non gritted road.

:^0 Buses stopped again i just heard on the radio and the roads ain't getting gritted until tomorrow :^0

There is a worse country for dealing with snow - its England !!

schools in swords closed lol

At last good news - a few days less exposure to c.rap education .

i crashed my car last Saturday on way to Knock Airport...bear in mind this is the N5, National Primary Route leading to one of our main airports at its busiest time..... i couldn't believe the response to an e-mail from Mayo Co Co...see below...bare faced lies i walked the road and nearly killed myself

Dear x
re your e mail below , see reply at 14.46.
The date should read the 2nd rather than the 3rd.
Regards



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:
Sent: 06 January 2010 14:46
To:
Subject: RE: Charlestown Bypass


This road was treated with salt twice on the day in question which I assume

to be Sat. 3rd 2010. and has been treated every day during this cold spell.

The finished surface is Hot Rolled Asphalt laid to the proper specification.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:
Sent: 06 January 2010 12:45
To:
Subject: FW: Charlestown Bypass








--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:
Sent: 06 January 2010 12:36
To: Roads
Cc:
Subject: Charlestown Bypass

I have to say with deep regret that the failure of Mayo Co Co to grit the Charlestown Bypass is nothing short of disgraceful. Unfortunately I had a collision on the road on Saturday morning and therefore witnessed first hand the terrible state it was in. Its significant that this is one of the main arterial routes in the country and also to Knock airport and was therefore heavily trafficked over the xmas period.



I appreciate its a new surface; however, clearly, its a treterous surface during icy conditions. When attempting to walk on it I fell flat on my ass (for want of a better word). Whilst waiting on the side of the road for approximately 20 mins, every car wishing to take the Airport Interchange struggled with it, infact one bus was very lucky to escape not having a head on collision. That was in the space of 20 minutes. There was no warning signs, no gritting etc. My brother, who was flying out, met a person in the airport whos car had over turned on the road.



Im writing this to pled with MCC to research the materials in the surface of the Charlestown Bypass and to grit the road at all times during this hard freeze before a very very serious accident occurs. I saw at one stage a Tesco truck travelling at in excess of 100kmp that Sat morning, you can only imagine the carnage that would have happened had there been a pile up?



Kind regards

The word you are looking for is 'treacherous'. Funnily enough, treacherous is only a word that is wheeled out when there is a heavy frost.

My advice to you would be to focus on your driving. No need to bother anyone with a poorly written letter.

t r e a c h e r o u s

Do the Betfair police have something against overenthusiastic weathermen?

It was an informal e-mail. If there are a few spelling mistakes or grammatical errors that have caused you offense then i apologies. Clearly to any "non pedantic" person the message was simple. Grit the ** roads before someone gets killed, particularly at that interchange.

Nothing wrong with my driving amigo, thats one thing i'm good at.... however, all the driving skills in the world wouldn't have saved me.

The weather has to date been worse in England than in Ireland . The relative performances of those involved in either jurisdiction in dealing with adverse weather is hard to assess .Neither is covered in glory at present .

England/ Britain has been going steadily downhill in most areas ( including politics and the public service ) for last 20 years or more , nothing I have seen inclines me to the view that the situation is going to start to get substantially better in the near future .

Ireland had the chance to garner up the fruits of the Celtic Tiger , act sensiibly and frugally within reasonable constraints , but blew it big time allowing the Tiger to be excessively vulgar and spendthrift , everyone living too high on the hog , among other things destroying the foreign tourist trade by overpricing . Was well sign posted up on here for years , but nobody was listening .

The roads currently are the most noticeable manifestation of the result of strictures in public spending . Unlucky that the current cold spell ( which is probably going to continue ) has been so bad , but government / local councils have plenty of management structures to apply a bit of brains and common sense to the problem . Holding their hands up does not wash with someone vainly trying to operate a business in trying circumstances , parents and family trying to get children to school , farmers trying to preserve stocks , etc etc .

Everyone in these islands needs a back to basics approach , one upon a time we were all good at making do with scarcer resources than we have even at present . Self help is always a good fall back , we cant blame governments etc for every problem . Most people ( fit that is ) I know would gladly throw in a few hours free involvement in a concerted effort to get roads passable in their neighbourhood , if that freed up officialdom to concentrate elswhere on major roads so be it , its all for the general good . But it has to be planned and co-ordinated sensibly , and I doubt many of our leaders have it as a priority in front of re-election .

I disagree. A lack of driving skill is only exposed when conditions deteriorate. I fear that this is what has happened in this instance. I'm inclined to believe the council when they say that the road was gritted. I'd also like to commend them for gritting said road as it is impossible to prepare for the type of weather event that occurs once every 40 years.

Typical rambling nonsense from Kelly.

They were indeed gritted and i should re-apply for my licence because clearly inadequacies in my driving have been exposed in addition to my grammar and spelling.

***note to self - must start my life all over again and become a righteous perfect driving citizen like galway man***

You would just love the galwayman on a jury . No prospect of fair assessment .

Today in Dublin I was ashamed to be an Irishman to see the City and Surrounding areas grind to a halt. I left town at 16:00 and am only getting in now and this after going up the bus lane the whole way home.
Disgraceful the way people carry on on the road.

what do u mean the way people carry on closure town to ?

Closure,at least you came straight on the forum to reassure us that you got home safely! The Irish forum breathes a collective sigh of relief. All we need now is to borrow Aladdin's genie and ask him to turn you into a Japanese citizen or some other worthy country. Phew,at least you got home safely.

Nothing wrong with my driving amigo, thats one thing i'm good at


Everyone seems to think they are a great driver in this country.
Not sure why Mayo CC get the blame. They can control alot of things but the weather is even beyond their remit.

I've been hearing horror reports about the carry-on of the council in Donegal from my agents in the field . It's a common litany unfrtunately -no gritting even on designated main roads , no signposting to alert people to dangerous roads , nobody contactable to clarify or explain anything . Their behaviour is not just dumb but bordering on the criminally negligent and causes untold and unnecessary misery and confusion.
The calibre of people running councils in this country is truly shocking .
We have known for years and now see confirmed yet again that the Republic of Ireland has no functioning government to talk of either at national or local level .
It's just a ramshackle collection of mediocrities -bereft of ideas and lacking any sense of social duty or responsibility.
One only had to listen to a guy called Ml Fitzgerald -the Chairman /President of a body called The Association of City and County Councils -talking to Pat kenny recently to realise the kind of attitudes that have this country crippled......

I assessed your post fairly. Rambling nonsense.

I guess the point I am making is that if you are not capable of driving in Wintry conditions you should not be on the road as you are a danger and a pest to other motorists.

Cooldine dont be worrying about me, I certainly wont be losing any sleep over you

tgm, did you not get the 8 fe-1's? what you upto now??

Was out with young Laide there recently!!

galway grooming thread starting :)

Who is young Laide?

oh oh here we go :(

I left town at 16:00 and am only getting in now and this after going up the bus lane the whole way home.
Disgraceful the way people carry on on the road.

Given that you were illegally driving up the bus lane at this time of the evening (unless you are a taxi or bus driver), what exactly is it about the Irish motorist that annoys you?

If I hadnt I would be still on the road. It was a fcuckin joke out there this evening. I wouldnt apologise to anyone for driving on the bus lane. There was not a bus or taxi on it anyway there were all gone home long before

Taxis are running closure so you were illegally using the bus lane so not quite sure how you feel the need to lecture anyone else on their driving.

Some idiots had the bus lane jammed at blanch earlier, an ambulance with flashing lights couldn't get through.

So you are able to come here and criticise the carry on of drivers in the road, despite the fact that you got yourself home by driving illegally, while others took much mich longer because the obeyed the rules of the road?

Nice bit of hypocisy being exhibited here!

Give the guy a break.It was of vital importance Closure got home asap in order to keep us up to speed with his shame of being Irish,his disgust at the driving ability of the Irish motorists orthat Barney didn't win as much money as a mate of his did. I would have thought that this entitled him at the very least full access to Bus lanes.In fact if we could get Aladdins genie back one more time,lets provide him with a flashing blue light to put on top of his car so he doesn't have to adhere to the rules of the road like the rest of us mugs.

Long time since I worked and lived in Dublin . No bus lanes in those days. Hate them myself , waste of travel facility in my view , unless they stopped about half the current car population from travel around the city .

We have bus lanes too , never figured out when you could use them and when not . Essential flaw is that traffic needs to turn left often off main roads , so its built in lane changing .

Another feature of road travel I only encountered recently in England were double and triple roundabout complexes . Impossible to figure unless you know exactly which lanes you want to access . Nightmare for tourists and visitors . Hopefully we dont go down that path .

Bus lanes are a brilliant facility for those using public transport imho and a massive encouragment for people to do so.