Gritting, ice and snow
Who is Responsible?
The County Council, as the Highway Authority, is responsible for providing a winter service on adopted public highways within the county except for motorways and trunk roads.
Grit bin locations
Grit bins are available across the county of Worcestershire and maintained with stocks of a salt/grit mixture where they provide the roads in the area with a suitable resource to safety. They are provided for use on the public highway only (including footways).
Gritting routes
Worcestershire County Council is responsible for providing a winter service on adopted public highways within the county except for motorways and trunk roads. The purpose of the winter service is to reduce the effects of snow and ice on the roads by treating the highway with salt. The service is essential for public safety and to the national and local economy in maintaining ice free roads.
Key to map
- Primary Network (red lines)
The primary Network are those roads comprising the Principal Road Network, main and secondary distributor roads, links to villages, major bus routes, emergency service locations and reasonable proximity to schools. Winter Service operations will give priority to these routes. - Secondary Network (blue lines)
Treatment of the secondary network takes place in exceptional conditions such as freezing rain forming ice on surfaces and heavy falling or lying snow, so long as physical resources are available and are not needed on the Primary Network. The Secondary Network comprises, less important local, village and estate distributor roads having significant traffic flows. Minor bus routes and school transport routes operated by Worcestershire County Council.
What we need from you and what we will do
You will be given the option to pinpoint the location using our mapping tool. Please use 'Additional Location Information' fields, where provided, to describe the exact location and whether on the road, verge or pavement.
The Highways department review all requests received and determine the most appropriate action based on both the details you provided and any policies and procedures currently in operation.
Your questions answered
Can I clear the snow outside of my property?
Yes, you are allowed to clear the snow and ice outside of your own property.
The Government produced a Snow Code in 2010 which offers guidance on self-help and clearing snow and ice from pathways. This information is available on the Met Office website.
Which roads are gritted?
Routes are split into two types:
- The primary routes (shown in red)
- The secondary routes (shown in blue)
The Primary Network comprises the high speed/ higher traffic major routes Countywide and is usually treated first.
Secondary Network comprises local distributor roads, bus routes and roads used to access isolated villages etc and will be treated in severe weather conditions once the Primary Network has been successfully treated.
Worcestershire County Council salt 2,371km of the adopted road network. With the available resources and time constraints it is not reasonably practicable to provide the service on all roads or to ensure all surfaces are kept free of ice or snow at all times, even on the treated parts of the network.
Why can't Worcestershire County Council grit all the roads?
Whilst it would be great to grit all the roads in the county it is simply not possible to do this because of cost and the time that it would take. Worcestershire County Council have to make difficult decisions about what roads they can realistically grit, based on the criteria contained within the winter service policy
The Primary Network route is approximately 30% of the road network. Worcestershire County Council will not grit private roads or drives. Motorways and Trunk Roads (M5, M50, M42 and A46) are salted by National Highways.
When do Worcestershire County Council grit?
Worcestershire County Council will normally grit the roads when the forecast is for snow or the roads are wet and the roads surface temperature falls below zero. Gritting takes place before frost forms on the roads.
Worcestershire County Council use the temperature of the road surface not the air temperature to decide if salting is required. Sometimes on a cold morning, when your car has a layer of frost, the roads may have retained enough heat through the night to prevent them from freezing and no gritting is required.
Worcestershire County Council may require to grit twice in a night if freezing temperatures are predicted before and after heavy rain as this will wash the first treatment away. It will take approximately 2.5 hours to complete a salting route.
How do Worcestershire County Council know when to grit?
Weather information is obtained from specialist forecasters, roadside monitoring stations and in unpredictable circumstances it may be supplemented by patrol inspections.
Worcestershire County Council maintains a contract with an appropriate forecasting organization that provides daily weather forecasts and are updated frequently. In addition, forecasters are available at any time of the day or night to discuss the forecast and changes in conditions.
Additional real-time information is provided by a network of roadside sensor stations around the county that report on air temperature, ground temperature, relative humidity and in some cases provide local site forecasts.
When available forecast information is uncertain or conditions are changing unpredictably, winter service inspectors may be mobilized to report on conditions along pre-determined routes or at specific points of interest.
These sources of information inform treatment decisions that are made by the duty winter service supervisor.
For the latest weather forecast updates visit the MET office website
What is salt?
Worcestershire County Council use rock salt on the roads to keep them free of ice and snow. It is used prior to freezing conditions and is a brownish colour because it is unrefined so it is often mistakenly referred to as grit. Salt works by lowering the temperature at which water freezes and can therefore keep a road free of ice below zero conditions.
Salt can work at temperatures down to minus 8 to 10 degrees C. Below this temperature salt becomes less efficient and roads can begin to freeze. Grit can be used on the roads but this will be limited to areas where snow and ice already exist on the road and a mixture of salt and grit will provide traction to vehicles and help break up the frozen surface.
Who is responsible for the grit bins?
Grit bins will normally be provided and maintained with stocks of salt/grit mixture where they provide a necessary improvement to road safety and benefit to the community.
Worcestershire County Council cannot provide a grit bin everywhere. Grit bins are located in strategic positions around the county and are provided for use on the Public Highway only (carriageway and footway). The grit bins are there to help road users, including pedestrians. You may use the salt to treat ice and snow on small areas of the road or footway.
New grit bins may be installed if the proposed location meets set criteria. Requests for new grit bins are assessed against pre-determined criteria, including the gradient of the road, proximity of bends and junctions, level of traffic use, number of premises/ residential dwellings and proximity of more vulnerable residents.
Parish, Town and District grit bins are now being placed around the County. These bins are coloured green and the responsibility of filling and maintaining these bins are with the local Parish, Town or District Council.
Are pedestrian routes gritted?
Worcestershire County Council do not generally treat footways as priority is always given to the road network. However, in prolonged periods of adverse conditions footways in town centres will be treated after the road network has been successfully treated.
Who is in charge of gritting the roads?
Worcestershire County Council is responsible for providing a winter service on adopted public highways within the county except for motorways and trunk roads.
How can I get more information on gritting?
Throughout the winter period when the gritting is being done you can find out more information on how they are doing through many different radio stations available across the county, some suitable radio stations are:
- BBC Hereford & Worcester 104FM, 94.7FM
- Free Radio 102.8FM
- Heart 97.6FM - 107FM
- The Wyre 107.2FM
- Touch 107.3FM
- BRMB 96.4FM