Gritters on Standby as Winter Approaches
Hertfordshire County Council’s fleet of over 58 gritters are 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), or the equivalent of salting from Hertford to Berlin and back.
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 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.
The Council supplies salt to schools if they request it, to help them stay open during icy weather. We 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.
Community groups and residents associations can also access free gritting salt and, last year, some 220 local groups took advantage of this. Application forms can be found at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/applyforsalt and must be received by the county council by Monday 31 October.
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 by following on Twitter via #grittertwitter on www.twitter.com/Herts_Highways.