\t\t\t\tEven though we thought we might just have seen the back of the snow and the cold weather, the “Beast from the East” has come along to prove us wrong.\u00a0 With severe weather forecast, we\u2019re bound to be skirting around treacherous icy conditions and asking, \u201cwhy hasn\u2019t this been gritted?\u201d<\/p>\n
The confusion arises around obligations and responsibilities on an annual basis, with warnings that you could be sued as an individual or company for helpfully gritting a patch near you but not doing a good enough job.<\/p>\n
So with who does the responsibility for keeping roads and pavements ice free lie, and to what extent?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Local and county councils are responsible for nine out of every 10 miles of road \u2013 almost of quarter of a million miles of roads around the UK.<\/p>\n
The Highways Agency is in charge of motorways and major A roads. However, due to the cost of covering every road, which would run into hundreds of millions, and the inaccessibility of some minor roads for the gritting lorries, less than half of these roads are covered.<\/p>\n
To make up some ground, local authorities provide local grit bins for residents to attend to their surrounding streets and farmers to help clear areas around them.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Section 41 (1A) of the Highways Act 1980 (England and Wales) says that \u201ca highway authority is under a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201creasonably practical\u201d is the reason why not all roads are gritted \u2013 as the resources needed are beyond what is available.<\/p>\n On the 14h November, 1991, Mr Goodes skidded on an icy road in the village of Mayfield East Sussex, leading to life-changing injuries. The accident happened at 7.10am, and the gritting lorry was out at 7.30am, complying with their \u201cCode of Good Practice which states that salting should be completed by this time in preparation for the morning rush hour.<\/p>\n In 2000, The House of Lords reversed a Court of Appeal decision that the Highways Authority\u2019s obligation to maintain the highways extended to preventing ice forming on the road.<\/p>\n Snow needs only to be cleared if it\u2019s causing an obstruction.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Most pavements are the responsibility of the local council, as they\u2019re classed as highways. But like the roads, they can\u2019t all be addressed which is why you\u2019ll see grit bins dotted around ready for a local resident or business to take the mantle. Pavements are treated depending on how frequently they\u2019re used and by how many people.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Even if someone falls and hurts themselves on a path that you\u2019ve cleared, as long as you\u2019ve done so carefully, you\u2019re unlikely to get sued. The only way for a case to hold weight would be if a court deemed the person clearing the path to be either \u201cwholly incompetent\u201d or \u201cirresponsible\u201d \u2013 otherwise Ministers have said that \u201cpublic-spiritedness\u201d and \u201ccommon sense\u201d should reign in such scenarios.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Even though we thought we might just have seen the back of the snow and the cold weather, the “Beast from the East” has come along to prove us wrong.\u00a0 With severe weather forecast, we\u2019re bound to be skirting around treacherous icy conditions and asking, \u201cwhy hasn\u2019t this been gritted?\u201d The confusion arises around obligations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[186,189,190,5],"tags":[47,18,395,396,397,207,208],"acf":{"related_articles":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.networkportfolio.co.uk\/edwardsinsurance.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What does the law say?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
What about pavements?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
Will I get sued if I do it myself?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n