When our full Winter Service is in operation we treat all roads and streets on our gritting routes when temperatures are predicted to fall below freezing. These are the only roads and streets we treat. We cannot grit all roads throughout the borough.
We base our decision to grit, or not grit, on the forecasts provided by Met Desk, who provide winter service forecasting for all GM Authorities. We aim to complete the gritting routes before the road surface temperature drop 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 only grit the roads on our gritting routes.
During periods of severe weather conditions, or if salt stocks are low or limited, then we may have to reduce the service we provide to treating essential roads only. Essential roads are those which provide access through the borough and maintain local access to critical services such as hospitals, ambulance stations and key points in the food and fuel distribution networks. These roads also help maintain movement across the country.
The Winter Service we provide aims as far as is reasonably possible to keep the roads on our gritting routes clear of snow and ice and to allow the safe movement of road users.
List of treated roads and streets, by town
Map of treated roads and streets
This is a map of treated roads and streets and also salt bin locations.
- Treated roads and streets are marked in blue.
- Salt bin locations are pin-pointed in green.
- Click and drag to navigate the map.
- Use the sliding scale on the left-hand side to zoom in and out.