When freezing winter weather is on the way, our gritting teams act to keep the county on the move.
Over 40% of the county's roads and most of our bus routes are salted when required. This means that most people will live on or very close to a treated route.
The Council has a stockpile of around 12,000 tonnes of salt and the gritting fleet uses around 250 tonnes on each run, which takes around three hours to complete.
On more lightly trafficked roads, the surface will remain icy for some time after salting and it must be stressed that the spreading of salt does not mean that the road surface will instantly become ice free. Drivers should always drive with caution whether the road has been salted or not.
For information about which roads are treated, how gritting routes are decided and how to volunteer to help grit untreated footpaths, see the links to the left.
For further information on winter gritting please refer to the Winter gritting leaflet (2Mb).