Gritters on Standby as Winter Approaches

Since Sunday 1 October Hertfordshire County Council’s fleet of over 58 gritters have been on standby, ready to spring into action and salt the county’s roads when freezing weather approaches.

Gritter crews and decision makers from the highways team will be ready around the clock to cover nearly half of Hertfordshire’s entire road network – that’s more than 1,500 miles (2,500km).

Cllr Phil Bibby, Executive Member for Highways and Transport at Hertfordshire County Council, said: ‘October is the beginning of our winter season, and we make sure our gritters are ready, our salt stocks in the depots are high and that the county’s 1,000-plus salt bins are topped up before freezing weather arrives. Our crews will be on standby 24 hours a day until the end of April, ready to deal with whatever the weather throws at us.

‘We don’t know how much, if any, snow and ice we’ll see this winter, but I am confident that our highways teams are ready, and we will do everything we can to keep the county’s roads open and safe, whatever the weather.’

Gritters are sent out when road surface temperatures are forecast to be 0.5°c, or below.

The council will, where practical and accessible, grit roads to schools, care homes, doctor’s surgeries, key pharmacies and libraries, as well as all the county’s A and B roads, bus routes (including school bus routes), roads with a 10% gradient or steeper and at least one route into every village. You can do your bit by parking sensibly and not blocking roads.

Salt is supplied to schools if they request it, to help them stay open during icy weather. The council will also supply district, borough, parish and town councils on request, so they can use their local knowledge to identify exactly where best to use the salt during severe weather. The council are also providing hand spreaders to schools to help them make best use of the salt provided.

Community groups and residents associations can also access free gritting salt and so far this year over 300 local groups have placed orders.

Application forms can be found at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/applyforsalt and must be received by the county council by Tuesday 31 October.

This year, QR codes have been added to 58 new salt bins across the county, and will be added to existing bins as they are topped up, giving residents easy access to information on how to use the salt provided to clear snow.

For more information about Hertfordshire County Council’s winter service programme, including the routes that are gritted, or to receive real-time updates direct to your computer or mobile phone, visit www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/salting and follow the ‘salting decisions’ link. You can also find information on how to clear snow and ice yourself.

You can also find out the latest salting decisions on Twitter via #grittertwitter on www.twitter.com/Herts_Highways.