Snow brings Sheffield city centre to a standstill

People in Stannington, Oughtibridge and Lodge Moor were unable to get out in rush hour and there was traffic chaos in Hillsborough, Crookes and Crosspool.

There was widespread criticism that roads had not been gritted but Streets Ahead said teams had been out on priority routes three times overnight but the wet roads meant salt washed away.

A bus became stuck on Sandygate Road in Crosspool and a road accident in Crookes left traffic gridlocked for hours.

Pupils on a school bus were among those caught up at Hillsborough and Crookes and had a two-hour journey before finally making it into class mid morning.

Broomhill cafe Vittles didn’t open today after its owners were in a logjam for hours, moving just 300m in 30 minutes.

Owner Mick Caswell said he had left home at 8am to reach Broomhill but heard about tailbacks from Hillsborough to Oughtibridge so decided to divert through Stannington.

He said: “On turning up Birch House Avenue, Oughtibridge, the conditions were very scary with cars inching up the hill and inching down due to the snow and ice.

“It took an age to traverse Birks Wood Drive, Haggstones Road and onto Worrall Road where there was still queuing traffic going toward Hillsborough.

“We then turned onto Kirk Edge Road hoping to turn onto Long Lane toward Loxley and Stannington however again we were met with a mile of standing traffic.

“After a length of time we decided we would not be able to get to the cafe in order to do the prep and open up in time - we open at 9.30am and it was gone 10am by then.

“We turned back home at that time. Gritted roads would have assisted and eased the traffic somewhat.”

Our Cow Molly vans also became stuck on Stannington Road as milkmen tried to deliver to 120 cafes and shops.

Owner Eddie Andrew said: “One of the drivers called me to say the road was just ice and he watched two cars slide down and crash.

“Another driver couldn’t get his children to school so that meant he couldn’t get here to take his van out so it had a massive knock on effect. We were an hour and a half behind with deliveries because of the chaos on the roads.

Mr Andrew said people could help by flagging up problems but the Streets Ahead twitter account wasn’t very receptive.

“I tweeted Streets Ahead to ask what was happening but it was 9.45am before I got a reply. I was giving them feedback about the roads and if they had taken that on board it would have helped everybody get moving.

“It was so frustrating, all it would have taken was for Streets Ahead to get back to my initial tweet and to grit the roads.

“There are twitter accounts like Yorkshire Water which are very quick to reply and react. Streets Ahead should take advantage of people trying to help them.

“Farmers are out from 3am so we could give them two or three hours notice before people start going to work. Twitter is a fantastic tool and it would be nice if Streets Ahead used it to work with people.”

Mr Andrew also said farmers used to drive their own snow ploughs to clear the roads but Amey had asked them to stop for health and safety reasons.

Darren Butt, account director at Streets Ahead said all priority gritting routes were treated yesterday evening at 7pm. Known wet spots on the routes were re-treated from 1.30am this morning and all routes on higher ground were re-treated from 5.45am.

He said: “Our gritting vehicles remain out on the network today responding to any localised reports and another full gritting route is underway this afternoon.

“When cold weather strikes, we do not routinely grit all roads in the city and encourage people to make use of the 2000 grit bins available for use on roads not gritted, drive according to the weather conditions and allow extra time for their journey.

“Following the amount of recent rainfall, the city’s roads are particularly wet, increasingly the likelihood of grit being washed off the roads following a treatment.

“Grit spreading does not entirely eliminate the risks of travelling in winter conditions and requires a certain amount of traffic to drive over the grit to ensure thawing occurs.”

Mr Butt added: “During icy conditions, there may be some unavoidable disruption on the network, which we always attempt to minimise by delivering our programme across major routes and link roads.

“We remain in regular contact with SYPTE and other partners to ensure our service is delivered in priority order to keep the city moving as safely as possible.”

For more information about our gritting routes and to locate your nearest grit bin visit: www.sheffield.gov.uk/winter