Council announces gritting improvements for Ashfield area

It has been anounced that three new four-wheel drive gritting vehicles will increase resilience for coping in severe weather and will join the fleet on hilly terrain in Ashfield Broxtowe and Gedling.

A new weather station joins the countywide network on the A608 at Annesley Woodhouse – a key high spot - and features a roadside camera to monitor road surface conditions.

Councillor Kevin Greaves, committee chairman for transport and highways, at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “We have been planning for winter all year round and we are in a strong position and ready for the months ahead. Some exciting new initiatives are also being introduced to help enhance our resources for this winter season.”

Via is a new company, set up in partnership between Nottinghamshire County Council and Cornwall Council to provide highways and fleet management services in Nottinghamshire.

Garry Chadburn, team manager at Via East Midlands, said: “We are ready for winter – we have been resupplying our salt barns over the summer period with 20,000 tonnes in stock throughout the county. We have 31 gritters in our fleet and they have all been undergoing overhauls throughout the summer so they are all ready to go and it is business as usual.”

The fleet of 31 gritting lorries are all tracked by GPS technology, and there are two gritting tractor units and two towable gritting units which can also be used in severe weather.

He said Nottinghamshire County Council’s four salt barns are already full to the brim, giving it 12,000 tonnes more salt stockpiled than official government recommendations, putting Nottinghamshire in a strong position for dealing with the worst winter conditions.

Dozens of volunteer snow wardens are on hand to assist in rural areas if the weather turns bad, and the county council’s Gritter Twitter alerts will keep people on social media informed of gritting operations.

Overall, the council has the capacity to store around 20,000 tonnes of salt.