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This page was last updated at Tuesday, January 12, 2010

NFDC helps keep the forest’s roads safer

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New Forest District Council environment services employees worked tirelessly to keep as many of the district’s roads and footpaths as clear as possible during the recent spell of bad weather.

The dedicated crews were out in the snow and ice from early morning to late evening, working in partnership with Hampshire County Council who are responsible for highway safety.

Although the adverse weather conditions, which started last Tuesday, meant disruption to household waste and recycling collections, NFDC staff were quick to respond to the vital task of gritting priority car parks, shopping areas and footpaths, particularly around sheltered housing.

At the weekend, crews helped to clear the main routes to all the secondary schools and colleges in the district to make the areas safer for students taking exams. On Monday, the same process was carried out around the primary schools.

In addition, NFDC employees worked hard to give safer access to doctors’ surgeries and hospitals, cleared pathways to allow emergency services, such as ambulances, to respond to callouts and dealt with adverse situations as and when required.

However, the crews found some areas, such as Waterside, Lymington and some rural parts, more difficult to access in the icy conditions. In these cases, NFDC made an informed decision about the risks to the health and safety of its staff and members of the public where it was considered unsafe to take the refuse trucks onto isolated roads.

Household waste collections are slowly returning to normal with approximately 30% of all households scheduled for a Monday collection returned to normal this Monday, the remaining 70% were badly affected areas where arrangements have been put in place for double collections to be made as soon as possible.

Environment portfolio holder, Cllr Edward Heron, said: “On behalf of everybody affected by the bad weather in the district, I would like to pay tribute to the hard work carried out by the NFDC crews to keep the roads and footpaths as safe as possible. My sincere thanks to all involved.

 

The teams worked well in co-operation with Hampshire highways teams and received a positive response from the public as most people were pleased to see them.”

 

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