Winter Service
Our Winter Service is in operation from late October to April. This means our gritters are on standby 24 hours a day. Roads on our gritting routes will be treated when temperatures are predicted to fall below freezing. We base our decision to grit, or not grit, on the forecast provided by MetDesk, who provide winter service forecasting to all Greater Manchester authorities.
We aim to complete the gritting routes before the road surface temperature drops below freezing. Gritting routes typically take 5 hours to complete. The first hour allows for calling out the gritting crews from standby and then 4 hours to get around all the routes and complete the gritting.
We can only grit the roads on our gritting routes, we cannot grit all 650 kilometres of road throughout the borough.
Disruption to council services
Severe cold weather conditions can impact on the provision of council services. For example, schools may have to close or bin collections may be delayed or cancelled.
For school closures information listen to local radio reports or check the school website:
If bin collections are delayed we can send you updates by email if you sign-up for bin alerts.
We also post information on our missed bin page.
Cold weather advice
Whilst exposure to cold weather can affect anyone, some people are particularly at risk, including:
- older people (aged 65 years and over)
- people with long-term health conditions such as cardiovascular or respiratory disease, or a mental health condition
- pregnant women
- young children (particularly those aged 5 and under)
- people with learning disabilities
- people at risk of falls
- people who live alone and may be unable to care for themselves
- people who are housebound or have low mobility
- people living in deprived circumstances
Before winter comes you can get yourself and your home ready for winter.
When winter comes, you can do things to keep warm and stay well.