4 May
The traditional six-year cycle of bad weather hit us this year with our busiest winter since 2011/12. We had several spells of very cold weather, mixed in with snow and ice. February was the busiest month that we have had in a long time, with only five nights where we did not have to carry out a gritting run. In addition, we had to contend with two exceptionally cold weather spells ‘Beast from the East’ and ‘Pest from the West’.
Over the season…
- 92 gritting runs were made, which is more than the previous two years combined
- over 2,500 tonnes of salt were used
- more than 22,500 miles of highway we covered by our drivers
We have a flexible workforce in place so when bad weather comes, employees from frontline services across the council can be redeployed to clear snow and ice in areas of high footfall such as district shopping areas, schools and in and around the city centre.
New this winter has been the use of quad bikes to grit our growing number of cycle paths. Cycle paths can be awkward to grit as they are separated from the main road by a curb. We have used these quad bikes on several main cycle routes – eastern, western and southern cycle corridors.
Councillor Sally Longford, the Council’s Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhood Services and Local Transport, said: “A huge thank you to all our gritting and street teams who have worked so hard all season to keep the city moving. When severe weather has struck gritting crews have been out around the clock in difficult conditions and have done a great job making sure main roads were safe to use.”
