Winter services - working to keep even more roads open

Helping communities to help themselves and inviting farmers to clear country lanes - two innovative ways the Royal Borough is working towards keeping even more roads open during severe weather.

The council is planning ahead to ensure that - in the event of another harsh winter - the previous successful initiatives to keep roads open will be continued and enhanced.

Cabinet agreed when it met last night (Thursday 28 July) to a number of initiatives including:
• working with local farmers to help clear rural roads in times of snow
• further working with town partnerships and parishes to encourage local communities to help clear the snow
• introducing a new GPS computer system which will give residents up-to-date information on salting routes and gritting via the website ready for this winter.

These are in addition to the £100,000 that residents voted to spend on winter services in last year's Participatory Budgeting consultation, and which bought extra footway spreaders, towable gritting machines, salt bins, snow shovels and salt.

The council is also investigating the possibility of building another salt storage facility on council-owned land.

Cllr Phill Bicknell, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Environment, said: "By working together the council, community groups, businesses and residents can ensure road users will be better able to get around the Royal Borough in times of severe weather.

"When we have heavy snow we inevitably have to prioritise which roads to grit and clear and that may mean minor roads remain impassable for some time. We have taken the pragmatic approach of providing the means to allow people to help themselves and their neighbours - very much in the spirit of the Big Society."

He added: "Despite media horror stories of neighbourly residents risking prosecution should someone slip on the area of pavement they cleared, the government has made it clear that there is no law stopping people from clearing snow and ice on the pavement outside their homes or from public spaces. We all just need to be careful not to make the highway more dangerous than it was before the clearance."

Guidance for householders on how to clear snow safely is available at www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_191868

Cllr Bicknell also announced at cabinet that, in response to a query from the highways, transport and environment overview and scrutiny panel, he had confirmation that farmers had been given the all clear by HM Revenues and Customs to use red diesel in their tractors to help grit and clear snow from public roads.

During severe weather the council concentrates on keeping open primary and secondary routes, heavily used footways near town centres and additional areas such as in front of some smaller shopping areas, outside residential homes, hospitals, schools (in term time) and steep inclines on minor roads.

The last two winters were among the harshest experienced in the last 30 years, leading to prolonged periods of snowfall and ice. Last winter gritting vehicles were sent out 85 times using 1,600 tonnes of salt and costing £161,000.

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