Residents buy 25 tonnes of grit in 24 hours from B & Q in High Wycombe (From Bucks Free Press)

Residents buy 25 tonnes of grit in 24 hours from B & Q in High Wycombe

3:32pm Wednesday 23rd December 2009 in

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SNOW blighted residents have bought nearly 1,000 bags of grit weighing a total of 25 tonnes at a High Wycombe store - in less than 24 hours.

Motorists fed up with slipping and sliding on their own streets and driveways, which have not been treated, have snapped up winter grit from B & Q in London Road.

The shop only got the order of 1,000 25kg bags at 4pm on Tuesday but virtually all have now gone.

Manager Alistair Smith said: “We could probably have sold 5,000 bags but it's not easy to get hold of.

“It's no surprise how many we've sold, not with the weather there's been around here. You can see it when you're coming in to Wycombe, the side roads haven't been gritted.”

Focus DIY in Bellfield Road, High Wycombe, has sold 208 bags of grit and have run out of shovels and spades, while Homebase in Loudwater has sold 113 bags and said customers are now buying dishwasher salt.

Linzi and Ross Haynes, of Robinson Road, High Wycombe, stocked up with ten bags of the grit from B & Q, partly to return a favour from neighbours who had treated the surface using their own salt earlier.

Linzi said: “We live on the side of the hill but the gritters can't get there, I haven't even bothered trying to move my car.”

Ross, 32, a gardener, said: “You don't necessarily expect the council to grit every road but what they can do is to fill the grit box.

“Everybody is happy to grit themselves if the grit is there. It's just the availability.”

Eric Meek, group manager for south Bucks in the maintenance and management department said: “We are trying to get around regularly to fill them but at the moment it's disappearing as quickly as we can refill it.”

There are about 400 grit boxes in High Wycombe.

Crews are out refilling the units currently, Mr Meek added.

He said roads are the top priority and primary routes are due to be gritted at around 4pm today.