Information about gritting from Lancashire County Council
22nd of November, 2024
As we’ve received our first real cold snap of the season over the past few days, I'm writing this week to provide some further information on the county council's winter resources.
The county's 45-strong fleet is ready to be called into action at any time to grit the roads ahead of any freezing weather.
We're as ready as we can be for this winter with approximately 22,800 tonnes of salt in stock and gritters based at our operational depots ready to go whenever they’re needed. We get local forecasts for each area of the county, which allows us to take the appropriate action for the conditions - this means that at times we may only need to treat some routes.
We do everything we can to keep traffic moving on priority roads and we are open about the fact we cannot grit every road in Lancashire. However, we treat all the A roads, all B roads, and some C roads, which adds up to around 1,500 miles of road – around a third of the total in Lancashire.
Even if we had the resources needed we couldn't grit every road quickly enough to make a real difference. No council does this.
It is important that people understand there are limitations to the service we can provide. That is why we ask residents to take steps to make sure that when severe winter weather strikes they are prepared and able to manage. We need your support to help manage public expectations and help communicate our winter policies and procedures, and the circumstances in which we implement them.
Our advice to the public is to stay alert to road conditions during the winter – the key thing to remember is that just because a road has been gritted it doesn't mean it won't be icy. It takes time and the action of tyres to mix the salt with the ice and make it work by lowering the temperature at which the water freezes. Road conditions can vary considerably over quite a short distance and it's vital that people use their judgement and drive according to the conditions.
Please find attached our winter service briefing note which outlines how we are prepared for winter as a county council but more importantly how the public can prepare for the winter ahead.
Keeping you updated
· Website - lancashire.gov.uk/winter
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