Gritting machines in a depot

People urged to take extreme care when travelling over coming days

People are reminded to take extreme care on roads and paths over the coming days - with freezing temperatures due to continue. 

With the thermometer set to hover at freezing and below for the next seven days, teams are working 24/7 to keep roads and paths safe. 

Gritting teams have been working round the clock, as they do every winter, gritting the county’s roads – focusing on the main routes before moving onto some of the smaller roads. 

With over 5,000kms of road in Northumberland, gritting everywhere is not possible, and drivers are urged to allow extra time for their journeys if they need to travel and leave extra distance for braking. 

With road temperatures forecast to go as low as –12 during the night, the effectiveness of the rock salt used for gritting will also be reduced, meaning further diligence is needed if drivers have to go out. 

The freezing temperatures, combined with overnight sleet and rain, has made for icy conditions on paths and teams are out continuing to treat priority footways in addition to the roads, starting with main town centre footways and moving out from there as resources allow. 

The council has 1,600 grit bins and 200 grit heaps around the county. Grit bins are there for people to use on a self-help basis to grit areas of public roads and footways of concern and we would remind anyone using the salt to also take care for their own safety. 

The council will replenish grit bins when it is made aware. People need to log a request via https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Highways/Winter.aspx 

In the current conditions, anyone travelling is also urged to take some basic kit should they get into difficulties – these include warm clothes, a hot drink (flask) and shovel. 

Detailed information on our Winter Services can be found at https://nland.cc/WinterLeaflet  

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