‘Not a grit effort’ says furious driver Graeme saw several people fall over in car park
Hamilton’s town centre car parks have been branded a “disgrace”following the recent cold weather snap.
As temperatures plummeted last week to as low as -7 degrees, motorists attempted to park their cars in council-run car parks.
However, many say they were left in shock when they parked up early in the mornings to find sheets of black ice surrounding spaces and parking meters.
One user, who parked in Brandon Street car park last Wednesday, said: “It was really bad having to drive out your estate, but then to turn up at the council car parks to find they hadn’t been gritted was a disgrace.
“The roads were covered in ice and the little island where the parking meters are were completely covered.
“What a joke” You have to pay for parking to come visit a town, only to find that you might also leave with something broken.
“I noticed at least four people slipping on the ice, I really felt for anyone who was elderly or disabled trying to use that car park last week.”
The Advertiser was also contacted, via Facebook, by a number of angry residents who felt their streets were left in a poor condition.
Kate Black posted to the Advertiser: “Just had to order three bags of rock salt (got delivered today) due to being unable to get out of my house.
“Also, a member of my family ended up injured and requiring stitches after falling yesterday morning.
“It’s not good enough to expect the public to grit their own street. The NHS are already over-stretched. They don’t need the added strain of all these injuries adding to it.”
Graeme Mcdonald said: “I live in the Machanhill area of Larkhall. I am writing to complain about the state of the pavements. They are basically a sheet of ice and it is forcing children and parents who are commuting by foot to Machanhill Primary to walk on the roads .
“Also, I have a business let in Larkhall Industrial Estate. The roads in there are nothing short of ridiculous. I witnessed a couple of near-misses, one being a car almost sliding into moving traffic estate.”
Gordon Mackay, head of roads and transportation services at South Lanarkshire Council, said: “At the end of last week, there was significant rainfall onto already frozen surfaces.
“Also known as freezing rain, this brings with it a risk of widespread black ice. In recognition of this, the Met Office issued a severe weather warning for ice on untreated surfaces across most of the country.
“During this time, our teams worked tirelessly to keep roads and pavements gritted. We worked 24 hours a day to ensure we reached secondary roads and footpaths as far as possible while ensuring main roads were kept clear.
“This was challenging with 2295km of road and 2384km of footway to cover, so all available resources were deployed and worked hard to reach all areas and replenish our 2064 grit bins.
“During last week, we used 4700 tonnes of salt on carriageways, on footways and on refilling grit bins, and the main town centre car parks in Hamilton were also gritted regularly over the latter part of the week.
“In spells of bad weather, the easiest at the entrance to the way to keep up to date with the council is to follow us on social media and there is lots of information on our website, www.southlanarkshire.gov. uk, including details of gritting routes and grit bins.”