Council workers spread over 600 tonnes of grit to keep county borough moving

More than 600 tonnes of grit have been spread on roads and pavements throughout Bridgend county borough over the past three days as the council worked to keep services moving.

Snow and thick ice caused disruption over the weekend and into Monday, affecting some schools that have been supporting the children of critical workers, and recycling and waste collections.

Highways staff worked from the early hours of Sunday morning and around the clock in the severe weather to keep main routes clear.

Essential social care services such as residential, domiciliary as supported living continued to operate as normal, with staff ensuring vulnerable residents were safe and well.

The county borough has more than 450 grit bins and they have been replenished in the past couple of days and will be checked again this week. About 1,750 tonnes of grit remain in the council’s stockpiles.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board’s community vaccination centres are open, and appointments are taking place as normal.

On Sunday, volunteers helped to clear snow from the car park at Maesteg Community Hospital so that up to 300 patients could be given their Covid-19 vaccines.

Council Leader Huw David said: “Many thanks to the council staff who have worked through the severe weather to keep essential services running, and also to residents for the community spirit they have shown to help others.

“I was heartened to see the efforts of the volunteers in Maesteg who helped to ensure that vulnerable residents could have their coronavirus vaccine.

“Every effort was made to keep services running and I would kindly ask residents to be patient as our waste partners Kier work through the backlog of recycling and waste that could not be collected on Monday.”

All refuse and AHP waste which could not be picked up on Monday or Tuesday will be collected on Saturday 30 January, while recycling which could not be picked up will be collected as part of the next scheduled collection, ie Monday and Tuesday next week.

Households affected by this temporary arrangement can sort and place items out for collection by using open carrier bags or cardboard boxes if their recycling containers are already full.

Alternatively, additional waste and recycling can also be taken for disposal at one of the three community recycling centres located at Tythegston, Brynmenyn and Maesteg.

All other recycling and waste collections this week are scheduled to go ahead as normal.

For more details about how the council deals with severe weather, visit the winter weather webpages.