Bromley snow clearance scheme could be rolled out nationwide (From News Shopper)

Bromley snow clearance scheme could be rolled out nationwide

4:04pm Sunday 22nd April 2012 in Bromley By Robert Fisk

A SNOW friend scheme where residents help the council by clearing ice and snow from their street could be rolled out nationwide.

Last winter 177 groups used scoops supplied by Bromley Council to clear snow from streets that are not part of the council’s gritting or snow clearing routes.

Positive feedback from the 3,000 snow friends has made councillors think about talking to the government about expanding the scheme for next winter.

Portfolio holder for the environment Councillor Colin Smith said: “When you empower residents, our experience shows that they respond and rise magnificently to the challenge and our sincere thanks go to everyone who has stood with us during the roll out of this programme.

We are now at the early stages of planning our response for next winter and ironically, we will be talking to snow friends and others over the summer months, holding another summer conference to spread the word and share lessons learnt.

There is genuine potential to look at a national scheme so that we can travel more easily when the wintry conditions strike and we will be talking to government about this.”

The initiative was developed using the experience of the first snow friends from winter 2010 to 2011.

When snow is forecast snow friend co-ordinators are emailed with the potential weather conditions giving their groups time to get ready.

Before the start of this winter 2,500 snow scoops and shovels were given to snow friends groups along with bags of salt. This is up from the previous winter where the figure was around 1,600.

The snow friends’ programme has already had schools sign up with Langley Park Boys School being the first.