Summertime Snow

How did your trip to work go today then?

It seems that our friends at the cooncil don't watch TV or read the papers since no sign of gritters or snowploughs at Mauricewood today (they were out on Sunday night in the rain)
No buses to Penicuik and lots of roads closed too.
Lots of schools shut as no teachers but no word on the website.

Let us hear your stories of Winter in Summertime

The snowploughs where back and forward along the main road like yoyo's all last night and through the night, admittedly the side roads have just been left but at least the A701 is open. As for the buses Lothian running only to Straiton & First no operating 62 but the 141 was running but is now only going to Bilston. Had a walk along the main road this morning and it is not in its best state probably due to lack of traffic. Wouldn't say much worse than it was at 11pm last night and the buses where still running then maybe worse towards Bilston..

Mauricewood and Beeslack schools open, which is somewhat supprising.

Because of the buses stopping at Straiton i didnt get to work.


I just cant believe the weather even the kids are complaining about to much snow

Could be worse, I know someone who came off a nightshift in Edinburgh got onto a bus and of course got no further than Straiton - think I'd rather be stuck going to then getting home from..

Despite the weather, my bus came on time this morning at 6:45am and I arrived at work about the same time as usual. I checked to see if the schools were open and the update at 6:30am said that they were all open. However, according to the update now, some schools have closed http://www.midlothian.gov.uk/ I have just heard that the kids at Beeslack are being allowed to go home at noon provided they bring a note to say that a parent was at home.

Whilst I praised the ploughs for being out last night, can't say I've seen any sign of any this morning..

It seemed to be worse going into Penicuik than out. All roads going south of Penicuik were closed.

I only wanted to get to the High St, but the police were advising people to turn back at that roundabout by Lidl's. I thought about parking in one of the supermaket carparks and then walking the last bit, but it was clear that if I did that, I'd have trouble getting out again.

I asked the policeman (who said he'd been there for 4 hours) what the roads in Edinburgh are like. He said they're fine.


The trouble is that I need to get to the High St before I go on to Edinburgh.

I'll try again after lunch.

According to the latest update many schools in Midlothian are now closed http://www.midlothian.gov.uk/ I've got to leave my work to visit my mother who is in the RIE having just had a hip replacement operation. Hopefully the roads will be sorted later on this afternoon

At 2.00pm, the centre of Penicuik was still a nightmare and the Peebles road was still closed.

Then I had to drive to Edinburgh. That bit was a dawdle!

It seemed to be only the centre of Penicuik that was a problem. I can't blame the cooncil or the police though. I thought they did very well in fact. Penicuik's problems were mainly caused by huge lorries getting stuck at that corner where John St turns left and leads to the High St. Cars parked or abandoned all along John St. didn't help either.

How were things in other town centres in Midlothian? Loanhead, Bonnyrigg, Dalkith etc.?

I got my bus at the town centre about 7.35, there seemed to have been an accident just at St Mungos church (heading towards Peebles) so the traffic was backing up and as the buses weren't able to turn at the roundabout at Lidl they were having to turn on the main road. Had a few scary moment at a few bus stops where the bus got stuck but got in at my normal time. By the time you get to top of Liberton Brae there is absolutely nothing!

I decided to leave work at 11.30am as I was getting reports from People in Penicuik that the weather was getting worse. As the bus was only going as far as straiton Park & Ride I had no option but to walk from there to Penicuik, 2 hours later I made it - a hot shower and a nice cup of tea were well deserved!!!

Lothian buses could have taken their buses further even if it was just to Gowkley Moss as the main roads werent really that bad, I have seen the roads a lot worse and the buses have been running - poor show Lothian Buses! I have just been on to there website and there is now only 47's running and they are only going to Gowkley Moss.

The traffic is starting to back up to Somerfield from people heading to Peebles!

My boss stays in Rosewell and they had no hope of going anywhere, no buses running out there.

SamTyler wrote:

How did your trip to work go today then?

It seems that our friends at the cooncil don't watch TV or read the papers since no sign of gritters or snowploughs at Mauricewood today (they were out on Sunday night in the rain)

The serious stuff started at about 5.30pm and dumped nearly 8 inches on us in less than 6 hours. What do you want? Blood?
By this morning it was a foot deep and at least another half-inch fell in the time it took me to clear the paths.

Nobody was going to be able to cope with that. In terms of amount over such a short space of time I have seen nothing like it for decades.

I heard the suggestion that the snowploughs where stuck over near Gorebridge and that is why Penicuik ended up in a bit of a state BUT having witnessed a plough going past me several times last night and today this may have just been one of these rumours that get started. Some of the problems in Penicuik seem to have been down to drivers just abandoning cars wherever, which I know is sometimes the best thing to do in the conditions but it does bugger things up for road clearing efforts. Was cheered up this afternoon by witnessing a bid 4x4 getting stuck - after coming face to face with a wee Ford Ka who clearly hadn't...

I managed to get an X47 at Cameron Toll about 4:30pm. It seems that some buses were only going as far as Gowkley Moss but others were going all the way, so as to avoid congestion due to the accident As it was, mine only went as far as the roundabout. I decided to walk as did a few others. However, half way down the dual carriageway I was passed by a 15A and then a 37 I met someone for some company but it was quite a struggle through the snow and my shoes weren't very waterproof

To cap it all, the mobile phone networks seem to be down as well

I've got a Virgin mobile and the signal strength seems to be very varied over the past couple of days. Can normally get a perfect signal at home but today the only time I have had one is standing at the top of Kirkhill Road - hardly ideal

yes i have virgin mobile to and not had a signal all day

bumble wrote:

yes i have virgin mobile to and not had a signal all day

Virgin use the T-Mobile network which is one of the masts up on the hill beside the A702 between Lowrie's Den road and Mauricewood Road. No power there so no signal and it seems to be affecting most networks as Orange and Vodafone also use that site.
It is going to be fun when they fix it as the texts and voicemails come piling in!

Hooray!

Mobile back in action around 6pm at last!!!

I just read this on the council's website dated 1 April. It looks like those in Glecorse will have to keep their recycling for another week

Quote :

Recycling waste/brown bins which were not collected yesterday due to the weather should be taken in today and presented on the next scheduled recycling uplift date.

I praised the council on Wednesday but today I can only say what a bunch of hopeless arses they really are. Yesterday in the precinct there where at least 6 council guys with shovels all clearing individual paths between the shops but non of the paths actually met so people still had to walk across the ice. Long sections of pavement had been cleared on John Street, then long sections where they hadn't - it was trecherous, and the path round towards the health centre had more in common with an ice rink than a footpath. Last night a tractor with a snow plough attached was going around, no grit to put on the road but it could clear the snow which by that time had largely cleared from the roads I seen. The A701 from Ikea into Penicuik was covered in black ice, no apparent evidence of gritting - if they cannot grit a main road what chance do the side roads have, maybe if they hadn't been gritting it yesterday morning when the road was so wet you could have swam along the gutter. Does anyone actually take charge of these situations and give out COMMON SENSE advice ?

have to agree with you there, the roads and pavements were terrible this morning. I was crossing at the zebra crossing at the town centre and the road was a nightmare to cross, lucky I had a patient driver that let me across! The pavement trying to get to the bus stop and even getting on the bus was another challenge! I had to laugh this morning coming down Liberton Brae on the bus I noticed that Edinburgh Council seem to have used up all their grit supply on Liberton Brae pavements, they just had a tiny bit of snow on Wednesday.

I had to laugh at the cooncils wee April Fool joke on the website:

Last Updated 1730, Thursday 1 April, 2010
The Council is continuing to clear roads and footpaths.

musicman wrote:

Yesterday in the precinct there where at least 6 council guys with shovels all clearing individual paths between the shops but non of the paths actually met so people still had to walk across the ice.

The Precinct is "difficult".

The bit from the Royal up to that alley that leads to Summerfield's car park is privately owned. The company that owns that whole block - the new shops and the flats above, Somerfield's as well - employs a sort of "marshall" lady who doesn't let her crew clear the opposite side of the precinct, just the bit that the company owns.

You probably saw two seperate groups of workers - one from the cooncil, another from the company - and, it seems, never the twain shall co-operate.

More amusing (not really) is this. Did you know that the cooncil hires time-served, fully qualified and skilled tradesmen through an agency. During this spell of snow which started in December, the cooncil has been using some of these very expensive, time-served, fully qualified and skilled agency tradesmen to do very expensive unskilled work called snow-clearing?

Despite the rain, I went for a run on my bike to Penicuik house this evening. At first I couldn't understand why there were no cars in the car park. However, the reason soon became clear.......

bough down