Roads and motorway gritting
Here's some information about how we grit roads and motorways.
Why aren't all the roads gritted?
There are 737 miles of roads in the borough and we can't afford to grit each one.
We've got a yearly budget of £2.5 million for gritting. Gritting every road in the borough would cost an extra £5.2 million plus an additional £8 million to pay for new equipment.
What can I do if my road isn't on the gritting route?
If your road isn't on a gritting route:
- Use a salt bin to grit the roads and pavements around your house - view salt bin details.
- If you've got an exceptional reason for adding a road to our gritting route, you can contact us using the details on this page. Your request would benefit from having the support of your local councillor. See who your local councillor is.
How does the council decide when to grit the roads?
We monitor weather conditions 24 hours a day and inspect roads to decide when we are going to grit and how much grit we need to use.
There is no set temperature at which gritting starts. Factors include variations in weather across the borough, altitude, existing and new snowfall, the dew point, road surface temperature, current and forecast salt supplies.
What time does the council grit the roads?
We try to grit during the evenings from about 6.30pm or in the morning at approximately 4.30am. Gritting at these times means we get the best performance from the grit. We may, depending on the weather, carry out more gritting throughout the day and night.
We try to avoid gritting during rush hours because our gritters get severely delayed and stuck in traffic. We also sometimes have to wait for the rain to stop before gritting so the grit doesn't get washed away.
When would only the priority route get gritted?
It's rare we would grit the priority route only. We'd only do this under the following situations.
- During certain severe weather conditions - such as prolonged heavy snowfall when the rate of snowfall on the highway is greater than the rate of the snow can be cleared using ploughs and salt treatment. In these conditions, the critical road network and other specific requirements must be prioritised to ensure the priority routes and other key public services can be maintained.
- When the forecast indicates the need for increased salt use - where the weather forecast indicates we will need to use more salt than we have available in our current salt stocks, we must prioritise the priority routes. This applies until more salt stocks have been delivered but we've ordered significantly more salt to reduce the chance of this happening.
- Under national control mechanisms - sometimes we are forced to reduce the amount of grit we use because of a national shortage in supplies. This means we can only treat the priority route to ensure key routes and other key public services are maintained.
How many gritters does the council have for gritting roads?
We have a fleet of 7 gritters. Find out more about our gritters
I've seen gritters on the road which aren't spreading - why?
This could be happening for 2 reasons:
- This happens when gritters are either travelling to and from the depot, travelling between parts of the gritting route, or travelling back over a previously treated section.
- In some cases, a gritter may look like it's not spreading when it is. This is because our gritters have a 'low throw' spreading device which distributes the salt on the road at a lower level than a traditional gritter. This ensures the majority of the salt is kept on the roads.
How effective is gritting the roads?
For gritting to be effective, it needs traffic moving over it. Prolonged and heavy downfalls of snow will naturally affect the effectiveness of grit salt. As it dissolves, it becomes less effective because it's diluted.
- View salt myths and facts - more about the effectiveness of gritting.
Who grits the motorways?
Motorways are maintained and gritted by Highways England.
If there's a problem with gritting on the M62, M60 or A627(M), you can report problems to Highways England.