Snow-hit Basingstoke 'like a disaster film'

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/dec/22/snow-town-like-disaster-film

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Scenes in Basingstoke last night were described as "like a disaster film" today, as the transport minister said he would be asking questions about events that led to up to 2,000 motorists being trapped in icy conditions.

Drivers abandoned hundreds of cars in the Hampshire town and sought shelter in emergency rest centres overnight, amid claims from the president of the AA that not enough grit was laid on the roads.

Abandoned cars still line the streets as heavy snow on outlying roads prevents drivers collecting their vehicles.

An AA spokesman, Gavin Hill-Smith, said between 30 and 40 staff had to spent the night in the company's Basingstoke headquarters, and reiterated claims from its president, Edmund King, that roads had been inadequately gritted.

The transport minister, Sadiq Khan, said he would be speaking to local authorities responsible for Reading and Basingstoke today.

"What I do know is that there is no issue about not being enough grit, there is no issue about not enough snow ploughs," he told GMTV.

"What the issue is, is why it wasn't applied."

Hill-Smith said a "perfect storm of events" led to chaos in the town.

"It was the sheer volume of snow," he said. "It started snowing heavily at around 12pm, and it fell very quickly. The snow coincided with lunchtime, when you have people going out doing Christmas shopping, and also people had been told to go home from businesses early, so everyone hit the road at the same time.

"It looked like something from a disaster film, there were abandoned cars everywhere."

Some people travelled no more than 200 metres in three hours, Hill-Smith said. The AA wrote to the Local Government Association eight days ago outlining concerns that councils may not have enough salt in stock to deal with a major snowfall, but Hill-Smith said he did not think this was the reason for what he said was a lack of gritting in Basingstoke.

"They've not actually been going out with sufficient frequency," he said. "We have to appreciate that these are difficult situations, but from what we've heard from members of public, there just hasn't been adequate gritting."

He said teams in Basingstoke had not seen one gritter all day. King repeatedly posted messages on Twitter yesterday saying there was not enough grit on the roads.

"Basingstoke cut off by ice roads … Reading suffering. Lessons learnt from Feb 09? Too little salt/grit too late," he wrote.

But the chief emergency planning officer at Hampshire county council today dismissed suggestions the council could have handled the situation better as "absolute rubbish".

"We gritted yesterday morning, then the next gritting run was due to take place but it started to rain, and you can't grit in the rain," Ian Holt said. "We waited for the rain to stop but as we waited the rain turned to thick snow, 10cm came down very quickly. That caused cars to skid, which caused gridlock, subsequently the gritting lorries just couldn't get through to the roads."

He said teams had been gritting the roads continually since Thursday, but grit laid yesterday morning was ineffective because it relies on the continuous movement of traffic. The council has laid 4,000 tonnes of grit in the last six days, from an initial stock pile of 12,000 tonnes.

Between 50 and 100 stranded motorists spent the night in rest centres, mostly church halls, where they were provided with hot food and drinks and blankets. He said the council would answer any questions the transport minister may have, and will be looking into its own procedures, but was confident teams "did all they could".

Hampshire county council is advising residents to travel only if it is strictly necessary, and warned road users to expect further delays and congestion.