A London councillor is working to ensure local residents don't have to wait as long for snow clearing following a significant snowfall.
During a Civic Works Committee meeting on Tuesday, Ward 2 Councillor Shawn Lewis introduced a motion that would direct municipal staff to put together a report that would examine the financial impact of changing a number of snow removal standards within the city.
"I see it in the community every winter. I see it on my own street. I heard it on the doorsteps during the campaign. People were really expressing their dissatisfaction with a number of basic city services... snow was right there on the top of the list for people," said Lewis. "It's an issue for people in neighbourhoods all over the city and I wanted to look at what we can do to change that."
The report would examine the costs associated with lowering the threshold on residential street clearing to eight centimetres or seven centimetres, from 10 centimetres. As well, the report would detail the operational cost of lowering the threshold of sidewalk cleaning from eight centimetres to five centimetres.
Staff would also look at assets available to the city that can be utilized to reduce the amount of time residents have to wait to have their streets cleared. Currently, residents can expect to wait a minimum of 24 hours after the snowfall ends before their streets and sidewalks are cleared.
"When you're in the Snowbelt, sometimes you get three or four snow days in a row, and that could mean three or four days of snow piling up on a residential street," said Lewis.
The report would also look at what technologies can be utilized to make snow plow routes more efficient.
"We're using the same routes for snow plows that we've been using for 10-15 years," he said. "There's better ways for us to move plows around the city."
However, Lewis said residents may have to make some concessions in order to improve snow removal in London.
"Many cities don't have snow clearing on their sidewalks, it's the homeowners' responsibility. That may be a trade-off, we may have to say in residential designated areas, you have to clean your own sidewalk, because we're going to redeploy the funds we use on that on faster street clearing," he said. "But it's going to be a discussion that the community can be involved in to raised the standards."
While Lewis' motion was approved by the Civic Works Committee, it will still need to passed by city council. Lewis said if it receives council approval, the staff report should be completed and be presented to council for review before early May.