A COUNCILLOR has explained why some roads in Warrington are not gritted.
Cllr Graham Gowland, who represents Lymm South, said that there are three categories of roads.
There are strategic routes, which are gritted and ploughed if needed, there are primary routes, which are gritted after the strategic routes, and there are secondary routes, which are gritted if resources allow.
Cllr Gowland says there are other roads that will never be gritted, however grit bins are provided by Warrington Borough Council for these.
The councillor has took to social media to explain this after he was asked why the roads in Lymm weren’t gritted.
A Facebook post by Cllr Gowland reads: “Last night I drove a number of the primary routes, and they were all clear.
“My road however was an ice rink.
“Obviously when you drive through an area the roads you probably use are primary routes, so will all be clear.
“There’s also different ‘grit’ used, not all of which is orange.
“One other point is that grit/salt can be applied, but needs time and traffic to ‘mix it in’.
“It can also be washed away by rain and meltwater, so sometimes there’s no point in gritting (if heavy rain is followed by a cold snap, for example).”
More can be found on gritting on the council website, which reveals that duty officers monitor the weather 24 hours a day.
It reads: “Detailed forecasts are provided by a meteorologist provider daily. The forecast gives predictions of the possibility of freezing road temperatures, snow, rain etc and the time that these conditions are likely to occur. This enables the duty officer to decide if or when gritting will be carried out.
“Warrington has its own weather station with sensors that provide information on air temperature, road temperature and surface conditions. This data is used to provide forecasts which are specific to Warrington. Duty officers also have access to data from other sensors within the surrounding areas.
“Due to our vast road network, it’s not always possible to treat every road. Therefore, we prioritise roads and bus routes that form most of our primary gritting routes. We use a fleet of five gritting vehicles to grit the network in five pre-planned routes, spreading a total of 1700 tonnes of salt during an average winter. It will typically take each vehicle three to four hours to complete their route.”