Council prepares £3.49m plans for winter gritting of Hertfordshire's highways

The data was reported to a meeting of the county council's highways and environment cabinet panel
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Gritters took to Hertfordshire’s highways 56 times last winter – spreading 12.5 tonnes of salt on 1,553 miles of the county’s roads.

That’s just above the five-year average of annual gritting outings in the county – despite a change that meant gritters now wait until road temperatures are colder before going out.

The data was reported to a meeting of the county council’s highways and environment cabinet panel on Wednesday, September 16, where councillors were asked to consider gritting plans for the coming winter.

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Gritter

Councillors were told that last year (2019/20) the winter season had been “slightly colder than previous winters”, but that there had been “no snow events”.

Gritting was triggered only when road temperatures were forecast to drop to -0.5C – even though in previous years 1C would be the trigger temperature.

And councillors were told that had the previous level been in place last year a further 11 ‘runs’ would have been triggered.

The report also highlights the problems caused by parked cars on narrower streets during night-time gritting.

In some cases last winter – where roads could not be treated with a ‘conventional’ the vehicle-mounted gritter – the report says the council used smaller gritters, with a second member of staff acting as a ‘banks’ person.

But, says the report, this approach had to stop when social distancing restrictions were implemented, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report also highlights the testing of gritter tracking last winter.

And it says there are hopes to provide gritter tracking on the county council website this year – showing where the gritter is and a ‘snail trail’ of where it has been.

The winter service budget for 2020/21 is reported to be £3.49m.

The ‘winter service operational plan’ was backed by the cabinet panel and will now be passed to a meeting of the county council’s cabinet for approval.