Article dated: 5 January 2010

Tackling Snow and Ice in Surrey

This report comes from Surrey County Council

We are currently preparing for the next cold snap which is predicted to bring ice and snow with it this week.

Our fleet of gritters spread around 6,000 tonnes of salt on the county's roads during the Christmas and New Year period to keep motorists moving. Around 4,000 tonnes was used in one week alone during the worst weather to keep people safe.

When you take into account an average Surrey winter usually requires 6,000 tonnes of salt in total, it is clear there has been an unusually high demand and the council has less salt reserves than it would like to have at this time of year.

In an effort to preserve our stocks we have decided only to salt the county's A roads for which we are responsible and routes to hospitals with accident and emergency departments until reserves can be replenished. This represents about 25 per cent of the county's roads network.

Before the cold weather began we had stockpiled almost 9,000 tonnes of salt, an increase of approximately 30% on the amount held last year.

The council has orders in place for more salt but a higher than expected national demand has led to a shortage across the country and deliveries are not guaranteed.

The council currently has almost 2,800 tonnes of salt in reserve. A delivery is due this week of 270 tonnes from the national body responsible and there are another 1,260 tonnes on order. The council's contractor Ringway has also ordered 1,000 more tonnes from Spain which is due to be delivered in the next few days.

The situation is currently being co-ordinated for the south east by the Government Office for the South East.

Ian Lake, Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Transport, said: "We learnt lessons from last February's extreme weather and stockpiled thousands of tonnes more salt than in previous years. However, the whole country has experienced exceptionally cold weather so far this winter so we need to be sensible with our stocks and concentrate on keeping the busiest roads clear until we can replenish our salt reserves.

"We will be working extremely hard with the resources we have to make Surrey's roads as safe as possible. If we do get very bad weather this week our advice to people is to only make journeys you really have to. We will however identify locations that could be isolated by the bad weather and we will do all we can to salt these routes if at all possible."

The council's 1,400 salt bins will continue to be filled but with sand so salt can be reserved for the roads.

Severe weather may lead to school closures and parents are asked to contact their children's school directly or visit the school's website for the latest information.

The council's individual school transport contractors will decide if it is necessary to cancel any routes and will contact those using the service directly if this happens.

Vulnerable people are being looked after during the cold weather with social workers visiting their homes to make sure they are safe and well. Surrey Fire and Rescue has also offered the use of 4x4 vehicles to get social workers to remote locations if needed.

Surrey County Council's Contact Centre is expecting a high number of calls during the bad weather. It is important the most vulnerable can speak to someone so we would ask residents to consult the council's website before calling to see if their question can be answered online.

MERIDIAN FM: GALLERY

Who we are and what we do. Check the picture gallery

RELATED WEB SITES
Surrey County Council

Meridian FM is not responsible for contesnt of external web sites