The County Council's gritters and their crews are ready to take action 24 hours a day, seven days a week, using the most up to date technology to pinpoint when and where to get to work.

The operations are controlled from each of our four Divisional Maintenance Offices so that we can take account of the varying conditions across the county.  This decision is usually taken in the late afternoon for the county.

If the evening forecast is uncertain, staff take home portable computers to obtain an up-to-the-minute forecast during the night, and will review the situation and inspect the roads in the very early hours of the morning - usually around 2.00am.

The County Council has a stockpile of around 12,000 tonnes of salt.  The gritting fleet uses around 250 tonnes on each run, which takes around three hours to complete.

Within 90 minutes of issuing instructions to salt the roads, the gritters are loaded and up to 35 winter maintenance vehicles and crews are on the move.  Salting the  whole network is completed in three hours either after the evening rush hour  or before the morning rush hour.

Motorways and trunk roads are managed by consulting engineers working for the Highways Agency.