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Access to Bramshott - Michael (18th Jan 2013 - 15:28:31) Can anyone tell me why access to Bramshott northbound from the A3 was blocked yesterday? The fire at the Green Dragon was nowhere near, and we had to get home via Grayshott and Headley - not very direct, and for no real reason?

Re: Access to Bramshott - Richard (18th Jan 2013 - 15:51:14) Probably for the same reason that the A3 was blocked today. There seem to be people who make decisions about roads who don't strike me as being overly competent.

Re: Access to Bramshott - Heather (18th Jan 2013 - 16:45:43) the A3 was blocked today because of a Jack Knifed lorry!

Re: Access to Bramshott - Richard (18th Jan 2013 - 17:39:27) And why did the lorry jack-knife...? Poorly treated roads perhaps? If the road had been ploughed and gritted effectively would the lorry have jack-knifed? And at Hindhead they were pushing cars as well, so the jack-knifed lorry didn't stop that section being treated. This country is far too fond of making excuses for snow. I would prefer that we do what most of Europe does, gets the snow dealt with, and enable people to get on with their lives. I wonder if European trunk road equivalents get blocked by snow, particularly those at low altitude (c.100 metres above sea-level)? Does anyone know?

Re: Access to Bramshott - S (18th Jan 2013 - 18:20:06) Richard, Other European countries cope well with the snow because every year they can count on a significant amount of snow and cold weather for ongoing periods of time. Here in the UK we will 'maybe' or 'maybe not' get a few days of snowfall every year.... This current snow will probably be gone by monday, causing perhaps 3 days of inconvenience and only one working day has been lost. Clearly local councils have invested heavily in gritting equipment in the last couple of years and I have seen many gritters out on the roads, and a big improvement on previous years too, but we'll never get it perfect because it just doesn't happen often enough. Big investments are just not worth their while in this country - we'd end up losing more money clearing the roads that we'd lose by people taking the time off work instead... You just can't compare how we cope here with how they do in more northerly countries where their infrastructure was built with cold weather in mind (for example under-road heating and a line-up of snow ploughs in every town). It's inconvenient but the local council have done what they can to minimise disruption and keep people safe - closing schools to minimise traffic congestion, gritting, providing salt buckets all around Liphook, and ultimately urging people to stay at home if they can....

Re: Access to Bramshott - michael (19th Jan 2013 - 10:04:48) None of the above explains why both slip roads to Bramshott were closed on Thursday - who decides? and why don't they look at a map?

Re: Access to Bramshott - Diane (19th Jan 2013 - 10:58:13) Poor Michael. If you went a bit further up the A 3 and took the next turning to your left over the common and followed the road round you arrive in Bramshott. When there was no tunnel and queiueng, people using sat navs would take this turning and end up at the back of the queue on the A3

Re: Access to Bramshott - Pam (19th Jan 2013 - 12:57:26) Well done S. Heartily agree with your post. Some people are just "moaning minnies" usually the ones who never get off their back sides to do anything about anything. Just like to gripe, criticise and complain. I have seen many gritter lorries around and yes I think the powers that be are doing their very best to cope in difficult circumstances and no one should ask more.

Re: Access to Bramshott - Richard (19th Jan 2013 - 15:43:07) So what were are saying is that as long as we try we don\'t need to succeed. A reminder for those who work in positions where job security is higher, many people get fired for poor performance. They have objectives to meet, and failing to meet them often results in disciplinary action leading to dismissal. Too many public bodies seem to be unable to hold failures to account and seem to be unable to diagnose root cause of issues and then resolve them. Every time it snows the roads seem to have issues. It may well be that it is not felt to be economic to do a better job and the disruption can be lived with, but if that is the case, then admit it. I hope no body has to get to the hospital at Guildford, in an emergency, in such a situation though...

Re: Access to Bramshott - Pam (19th Jan 2013 - 18:31:06) I refer to Richard's posting about people being accountable although I was not sure what he meant by his statement "those who work in positions where job security is higher". What does that mean? I assume, but correct me if I am wrong, that when he talked about "objectives" and "peformance" he was not talking about drivers of gritter lorries. Was he in fact talking about "high fliers" in highly paid jobs where the American intolerance to any shortcoming or imperfection has been adopted and pressure is applied ruthlessly? Dog eat dog. I would welcome his comments. Or was he talking about teachers, nurses, shopworkers, hairdressers etc etc - in other words ordinary, hardworking people? My posting was NOT implying that as long as people try but don't succeed then that is OK. My point was that if a person has done his or her absolute best and has fallen short of the end target, he or she should not be pilliaried and blamed - and that applies to companies and organisations. Of course there is always room for improvement in many areas of life, but this can only be achieved if there is a positive approach and not a negative one. It is the old "compensation" culture rearing its ugly head again. It is very easy to target both public and private organsiations and apportion blame when everything does not go your way or you experience the slightest bit of inconvenience. What happened to tolerance and understanding? It is very easy never take into account human error and frailty and accept the fact that human beings are "not perfect." In my experience those who blame others are usually the ones who do not take responsibility for their own actions, who rarely praise but quick to criticise and find fault. In conclusion a close friend of mine did have to get to Guildford hospital yesterday and no problem at all.

Re: Access to Bramshott - Richard (19th Jan 2013 - 21:13:50) As Pam has implied, it is not usually the people at the bottom of the food chain who cause the problems, even when they are the ones who get blamed. It seems too many layers of management in our public bodies don't seem to very accountable, seem to have bullet proof pensions and redundancy packages and yet the level of service we are getting is poor. I have worked in both the Public and private sectors and the public sector was always about saying the right thing, and not getting the right result often enough. The private sector has the same issues, but they do seem to be able to do something about it. We may not like everything about employment in America, but if we (as taxpayers) are paying someone a salary of £40 to £50k per year, I would like to see someone in the job who is effective. As taxpayers I remain far from convinced that we get value for money out of the Highways, as witnessed by the road repairs last year in Liphook... And as a footnote, now the organisation has kicked in, the gritting teams are doing a great job.

Re: Access to Bramshott - Suzi (20th Jan 2013 - 12:11:02) Really don;t think that you can put teachers & nurses in the same category as shop workers & hairdressers ! The first 2 are regulated structured vocational workers, & the latter 2 non essential and can be luxury outlets!

Re: Access to Bramshott - michael (20th Jan 2013 - 12:15:43) Back to the thread ... Diane says "If you went a bit further up the A 3 and took the next turning to your left over the common and followed the road round you arrive in Bramshott" - I tried to take that turning, but there's a 'no exit' sign, and I was in too much of a hurry to take the risk that the sign was wrong ....

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