West Berkshire Council ready for cold weather.
With the winter weather fast approaching, West Berkshire Council is fully prepared for winter and has its Winter Service and Adverse Weather plans in place which will be triggered by cold and other weather alerts from the Met Office and flood alerts from the Environment Agency.
From November to March, the Council monitors the weather and gritting is likely whenever road temperatures are forecast to fall below zero.
The highways team have 5000 tonnes of salt in stock for the district's roads to ensure disruption to the travelling public is kept to a minimum.
When icy conditions are forecast, gritting takes place on the Primary network and includes all major routes within the district. Should icy conditions persist, a secondary network of other well used roads connecting smaller areas of population are treated. There are also 459 additional roadside salt bins, some of which are owned by West Berkshire Council and some by the Town and Parish Councils, however, West Berkshire Council refill them ready for the community to use when necessary.
West Berkshire Executive Member for Highways, Pamela Bale, said: "Since West Berkshire Council was formed in 1998, we have run a successful road gritting programme and have in place a well established comprehensive winter service plan in place despite a national salt shortage in 2009 and three successive bad winters."
Maps showing the primary and secondary gritting networks and the Council's Winter Service Plan can be seen on www.westberks.gov.uk under Highway Winter Service. Once gritting is under way, those web pages will also show a 'road treatment log' confirming which roads have been gritted and other roads that have not been gritted because of higher temperatures. The M4 and the A34, are the responsibility of the government's Highways Agency which has it own gritting regime.
Councillor Bale added: "The Council does everything it can to provide motorists with information and help reduce the risks that ice, frost and snow inevitably bring during cold weather spells. However, when temperatures drop below freezing drivers should avoid making unnecessary journeys and take extra care if they do have to travel."
In addition to the Council's website, there are a number of useful links on the Met Office website in relation to cold weather and getting ready for winter. These give details of when there are cold weather alerts in place - and what to do to be prepared and stay warm and well and how to protect your home.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/coldweatheralert/
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/get-ready-for-winter
All to the good, and I'm sure they'll do their best. Would be worth everyone else taking heed as well. Hope we don't get any 'surprised' business houses who rely on road transport being caught because they are located in side roads, or residents / shopkeepers who can't be bothered to keep their frontages clear.
As well as the roads let us hope someone will manage to keep the pavements clear .
Well, if we kept the path in front of our own house / shop / office clear, there would be far less disruption and the Council Workers would be able to do far more.
When I was a lad, too many years ago, it was the done thing. In fact, people who didn't were considered anti social!