THE THURROCK gritters were out last night as the temperatures plummeted and winter bit in for the first time in the borough.
With a number of controversies last year surrounding the roads of Thurrock we asked the council what plans had been set in place for the long haul.
A spokesperson for Thurrock Council said:
“Thurrock’s Winter Maintenance programme went to the overview and scrutiny in October. The report gives lots of details. Apart from some minor changes, this year’s programme is very much the same as last year.
The Snow Plan details the gritting routes (http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/travel/highways/content.php?page=gritting). These deal with main roads, bus routes etc and then down to access to doctor surgeries and so on.
The major difference to last year is that with the refuse staff now in-house, we may be able to react more quickly to grit the smaller roads and pavements by hand (the council has a limited number of gritting vehicles).
The council has more salt in stock now than it used last year and the gritting team has already been out gritting the major routes four times reacting to official Met Office forecasts
Thurrock Council followed its plan last year and will do so again this year. It is impossible for the council to salt every mile of road and pavement in the borough. There are over 500 miles of roads in Thurrock which would mean 1,000+ miles of gritting each time.
