and this past winter (2010/11) saw unprecedented levels of snow falling in and around the capital, causing severe disruption to London commuters and businesses. And there seems to be general agreement that we can expect similar extremes in coming winters.
While local councils are responsible for gritting and clearing public thoroughfares, this won’t help clear your employee car park, your goods delivery areas or your walkways in the event of snow and ice. Having clear public roads is of limited use in keeping your business moving if employees can’t get into work, lorries can’t go out on deliveries or customers cannot access your retail outlets. In addition, health and safety legislation requires you to take reasonable precautions to make your buildings and grounds safe for employees and visitors.
This creates a dilemma for many London businesses, who want to protect their business and cover themselves legally in the event of snowy conditions, but are not sure when the next harsh winter will actually occur or how to go about organising gritting themselves. The answer is to make arrangements with a London gritting contractor such as Ice Watch to provide gritting when needed.
When you arrange a contract with Ice Watch we will visit your London premises to gather your requirements and conduct a risk assessment. We then monitor the local weather on a daily basis, checking for temperature and moisture levels and will visit your site when necessary to carry out gritting and snow ploughing as required. Our primary aim is to prevent ice forming, which we do with our highly effective gritting service. This also helps to stop snow settling. In the event of heavy snowfall, we will clear snow with our snow ploughs to enable safe movement of personnel and vehicles.
In addition to the above, to help guard your business from claims for damages and injury we provide a full record keeping service which can be used to demonstrate the care and precautions you have taken. And you’ll be covered by our £10m public liability insurance in the event of an insurance claim being made, giving you further legal protection and peace of mind.
We already have many clients in the London area, served by local London gritting contractors within 10 miles of client locations. So you can be assured of local knowledge and a speedy response if icy conditions develop suddenly. We serve all types of clients and premises including private car parks, property management companies with responsibility for maintaining safety in commercial and residential complexes, schools, colleges and hospitals, industrial and retail parks, to give just a few examples. We can also provide gritting for private roads not served by local authority gritters. If in doubt about the suitability of Ice Watch’s service for your grounds or premises, just give us a call and we’ll be happy to advise.
If you’re not sure whether your area falls within London or not, there is no need to worry. Although we use local London contractors for our London clients we have access to a large network of contractors nationwide as far afield as Lowestoft, Plymouth, Exeter, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester, to name but a few. To discuss your requirements and for a free quotation contact us now. |
