Snow, traffic & grit

The snow certainly came with a vengeance yesterday evening. I've never seen such huge agglomerations falling from the sky except when propelled by human hands. The result this morning was a walk to church which used my thigh muscles more than they've been used for a long time! It also resulted in some stunningly beautiful scenery, especially on the river banks. I've put one photo here but there are more to be found here.
Of course it brought problems on the roads, some more serious than others. Leven Bank closed, lorries having problems at the Yarm Rd traffic lights near to the Blue Bell, a 2 hour journey from Yarm to Ingleby Barwick are only some of the stories I've heard so far. Stockton Council's officer in charge of such things as gritting roads says that although the gritters were out regularly yesterday and Friday at times there wasn't enough traffic on the roads to mix the salt into the snow and make it effective and at other times the road surface temperature was down to -10C, at which point salt isn't effective anyway. It seems that circumstances conspired to spoil their best efforts.
On the other hand, people travelling to other Tees Valley towns said that they were clearer than Stockton so one does wonder just where the truth lies.
Either way, the forecast for the next few days is more snow and freezing temperatures so wrap up warmly, try to avoid using cars if possible and do use the grit bins which are at strategic points round the ward. At least until they're empty - they're not a priority for filling while major roads need grittting unfortunately.