Winter service plan

The Council's aim is to provide a winter service which, as far as is possible, allows the safe passage of vehicles and pedestrians on priority routes, and keeps delays and accidents caused by adverse weather conditions to a minimum.

This involves:

• Precautionary salting of carriageways on identified priority roads within the Borough, to prevent ice from forming.
• Precautionary salting of footways identified as Priority Footway locations within the Borough, to prevent ice from forming.
• Post-salting of footways and carriageways in priority order in extreme weather to melt ice and snow that has already formed to keep delays and accidents to a minimum.

During and after snowfall, minor Borough roads and footways will be treated with salt after the primary routes have been treated.

Some minor roads, such as cul-de-sacs and particularly narrow streets subject to heavy on-street parking cannot be treated by mechanised spreader vehicles, and will be treated by manual hand-gritting.

The target response time for gritting operations is set at 30 minutes. From decision to commence operations, Operational Services will commence gritting within 30 minutes and complete each gritting route in specified allowed time (normally 2-3 hours dependent on route).

Footways in general, pedestrian precincts or cycleways are not specifically designated as routes for precautionary salting. Nevertheless, there will be a certain amount of overspill of salt onto footways and cycleways when precautionary salting is being carried out on adjacent carriageways.

Footways, other than identified priority footway locations will be treated once snow or ice has settled/formed or during periods of prolonged freezing conditions on the following priority basis.

• Main shopping areas.
• Footways on bridges.
• Identified heavily pedestrianised footways.
• Footways on inclines.
• Residential footways Borough-Wide - At least one side of all borough roads will be treated/cleared as resources allow.

In the event of persistent snowfalls over a sustained period, repeat treatments of the footway priority order may be necessary. This could result in a delay in the treatment of some residential footways.

When does the council grit and salt?

The Council will operate a 21 week period of Out of Hours Standby covering the period November through to the end of March, when staff will be available for emergency call-out to deal with prevailing weather conditions.

In the event of winter weather conditions being experienced before or after the designated 21 week period, resources will be allocated as necessary to deal with prevailing conditions.

Salt bins

A number of grit bins are to be placed at locations around the Borough and stocked prior to the start of the Winter Service period. These are to provide residents with additional salt to be placed on residential roads with known problem areas and steep inclines. The grit bins are to be removed into storage after the Winter Service period.