Drivers urged to take extra care in winter conditions

Drivers are being urged to take extra care on Staffordshire’s roads this week as weather forecasts predict a cold snap is on the way.

Staffordshire County Council’s highways teams are on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep the roads network open for business.

A fleet of over 60 salting vehicles, 140 snow blades, and 20 tractor-mounted snow blowers is on hand. And ten of the salting machines use pre-wetted salt, ensuring more immediate and effective action, stopping ice before it gets a grip.

In addition, gritters and snow ploughs are parked up on farms, with farmers contracted in if needed.

Across the county’s seven highways depots, 13,500 tonnes of grit is stockpiled ready to use on more than 60 regular gritting routes.

Staffordshire grits 43% of its roads – higher than the national average of 35%. However this does mean some will remain untreated. The message is that every driver should be extra careful on all roads during icy weather.

Cabinet member for highways Mike Maryon said: “We’re obviously well prepared for the worst of the winter weather and are ready to act at short notice.

“Staffordshire is a large county with varying weather conditions. Our highways teams are continually monitoring the weather forecasts and will head out onto the roads whenever and wherever necessary.

“But the message is a clear one to motorists – you must take extra care when driving in winter conditions and avoid travelling if possible when the weather’s really bad.

“We will do our very best to make the roads safer and work round-the-clock if we need to. However there are roads which will be untreated and even on gritted roads people will still need to exercise extra caution.”

The gritting team has been out on around 75 occasions across the county since October. The teams at Gailey, Newcastle, Lichfield, Stone and Uttoxeter have been out approximately seven times each. The more severe weather in the north of the county has meant that the teams from Leek and Ladderage have been out around 20 times each.

It is an expensive business – even in an average winter we use over £700,000 worth of salt. Including plant and labour that’s £30,000 every time the vehicles hit Staffordshire’s streets to spread salt.