Winter service plan

During adverse weather, safety is our number one priority. 

All road users have a responsibility to themselves and other road users during adverse weather conditions. It will be necessary to reduce speeds and adapt your driving to the weather and road conditions. 

We aim to provide a service that:

• Reduces, as far as possible, the effects of hoar frost, ice and snow.
• To provide travelling conditions as safe as reasonably practicable within our financial, resource and time constraints. 

Our Winter Service Plan sets out what we do and don’t do and how roads across the Borough are prioritised through a road hierarchy. 

We provide the Service each year from November through to April (longer if forecasts indicate that cold weather will continue).

This service operates on a standby basis, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and includes:

• Gritting roads
• Snow ploughing
• Grit bins at priority locations

What is gritting

• It is the generic term for the application of Salt (Sodium Chloride). 
• It is a cost-effective method to lower the freezing point of water and help prevent the bond between ice and the road surface. 
• In the past salt was typically mixed with grit to aid traction but in most situations just Salt is used. 

*For the purposes of these web pages any reference to Gritting, refers to the sole application of Salt.