Issue - decisions

Winter Grittiing

17/11/2017 - Winter Gritting Service

The Chair welcomed Phil Durnell, Head of Service Highways; Ridwan Musa, Highways Manager; Harvey Danson, Area Highways Manager; and Dwayne Lowe, Area Highways Manager to the meeting.

 

The report presented explained that LCC aimed to provide a winter gritting service which, as far as is reasonably practicable, would ensure that safe passage along a highway was not endangered by snow or ice.

 

Preparations for winter was an all year round process and Highways had a Winter Maintenance Group in place. The Group met every month and looked at current and future practices, and, what lessons could be learnt from the previous year. The Winter Service plan set out LCC's requirements and advice for the Winter Service on all highways for which LCC was the highway authority.

 

Regarding climate change, Members enquired if the Highways team had a contingency plan in place for the variety of weather issues. The gritters were on 24 hour standby for severe weather. There were resources in place for the different weather issues. Additional staff were on standby as gritter drivers were only allowed to drive for 12 hours.

 

There was a new draft guidance currently being looked at and it had been discussed with the National Winter Resilience Group. It had also been tabled at various service groups that the Highways Team attended. The Team was currently looking to understand the data provided to allow it to be implemented in the winter Maintenance Plan. It was felt that the revised guidance should come to the Internal Scrutiny Committee prior to going to the Cabinet Member so as to give Members a chance to comment.

 

A proposal was put forward for a Task and Finish Group to be established to review the amount of grit bins currently in place and where they are placed. It would also look to review the criteria used to agree grit bin placement.

 

In terms of Twitter information on gritting, the Highways Team would consult with the Communications Team to see if the information could be more finely tuned for the public to identify where gritting had been done.

 

Resolved: That;

 

  1. The preparations that are in place for the Winter Gritting Service 2017/18 be reviewed and scrutinised.
  2. That the requirements to implement revised guidance for treatment when ice/hoar frost/snow is forecast be noted.
  3. That the Implementation Navtrak guidance software to all gritters be noted.
  4. That the requirement for the Installations of a weighbridge at Singleton depot over the forthcoming season be noted.

  v.  That the requirement for the replacement of the weather stations be noted.