Council’s highways service responding to cold snap

Cheshire East Council’s highways service has already been out gritting many days and nights due to the present cold snap, which is likely to continue, with snow in the forecast.

The service is well prepared for these conditions, but we are urging residents, and all drivers, not to assume that all our roads are gritted, to take care and drive to the conditions. Temperatures have plunged to below freezing in some parts of the borough, especially on the high routes to the east.

Farmers have been helping with some of the gritting operations and we thank them for their ongoing support. We have gritted the high routes at least 13 times so far and our gritters have been called out on 26 occasions, with the gritting season still young.

Pedestrians need to take care on footways where fallen leaves may have frozen. Unfortunately, the service cannot treat pavements and walking routes.

We have around 500 grit bins around the borough for use by the public. These are for gritting roads or footways. Grit bins were filled as part of our pre-season preparation. A refill may occur, but only in the event of a lengthy spell of snow and ice, and if resources allow.

Despite the ongoing financial pressure on council services, we continue to prioritise gritting key roads and delivering our pre-planned programme to keep roads safe in icy conditions.

You can visit the Cheshire East highways web page to find out more about gritting routes and grit bins here