Doncaster Council’s gritting teams are on full-time standby and ready for the winter ahead

Every year the 13-strong fleet of front line gritters and their drivers go on to full-time, 24-hour standby marking the official start of winter.

To put the volume of work required in context, last year, the council’s teams went out 69 times across the ten different gritting routes in the borough.

This year, 40 staff have been trained and are prepared to tackle the elements with the aim of providing a practical, safe, efficient, sustainable and cost effective winter service for the public Training includes a health and safety induction, winter maintenance, route familiarisation and extensive knowledge of gritting controls and technology.

Councillor Joe Blackham, Cabinet Member for Highways, said: “Our teams are weather ready. We’re well organised and are prepared for what winter has in store. We have around 6,500 tonnes of rock salt ready to be used as and when the road temperatures drop to – or below – zero degrees.

“The team often work around the clock when a lot of us are in the warmth of our house and make sure the surfaces are treated as best as they can be for everyone the following day, from commuters to school children to emergency services.

“A lot of time and effort goes into ensuring that people can travel in and around the area as smoothly as possible despite the weather but our highways teams can only do so much. Therefore, we also have 22 volunteer snow wardens across the borough who have received training to enable to assist the council and some of those ‘harder-to-reach’ areas, when required.”

In total, a network of 530Km of 'A' roads, 'B' roads and other strategic routes is covered by precautionary gritting/salting, which is approximately 35% of the council's roads.

The Doncaster Council Our social media channels will often inform followers of if/when members of the public can expect to see our gritters out on the roads.

More information about gritting can be found on the website at www.doncaster.gov.uk/winter

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