Ready for the winter weather

The County Council is ready for the possibility of severe weather over winter with gritters on stand by to go out, put salt down on the roads and help keep East Sussex moving.

There are 10,000 tonnes of salt in the barns ready for use this winter. When icy conditions are forecast the County Council's fleet of 24 gritters spread salt on more than 840 miles of the top priority roads with an extra 130 miles of secondary roads salted when snow is forecast. Every time the fleet of gritters goes out to salt the network of top priority roads it costs around £8,000.

Councillor Carl Maynard, Lead Cabinet Member for Economy, Transport and Environment said: "If we are affected by severe weather this winter, our gritting fleet is ready to go out on our busiest roads and make sure people can still travel to work and see families and friends.

"All of our gritters have been serviced over the summer months and we have contacted all of the farmers who help us in the event of snow. Our gritters have already been out five times so far this season. This follows our ‘Operation Snow Drop' that involves sending them out on their gritting routes to ensure both our drivers and the gritters are ready for the winter ahead. The last of our salt deliveries have come in this week which tops up our stockpiles to 10,000 tonnes, our normal starting stock.

"However, we can't guarantee that treated roads will always be completely ice-free as it takes time for the salt to become effective, and in very cold weather even salt won't prevent roads from icing, so I would urge anyone who does need to take to the roads in icy or snowy weather to drive appropriately for the conditions.

"The Highways Contact Centre will be able to provide information and advice to our customers during times of extreme weather but please be aware that we will be experiencing a very high level of calls, so there will be an increased waiting time. Please keep checking the website and follow us on twitter and facebook as other ways of getting information."

To find out which roads are on our gritting routes, go to our page about:

Gritting roads and pavements
To find out whether your child's school is closed or whether day care centres, libraries or other council services are affected by winter weather, visit our page:

Getting alerts about disruption to council services
You can also follow us on Twitter at @EastSussexCC and @esccroads, and on Facebook or telephone 0345 60 80 193.