Last night was bitterly cold and we experienced  temperatures of minus 6 degrees centigrade on the road surface which was not as low as the minus 9 to 10 degrees being forecast in the early evening.  No significant snow fell last night, but minimal amounts were seen in localised spots across the County.

We ran the priority one salt routes at 18.00 hrs yesterday evening and then followed this with a priority two run at 22.00hrs. The priority 2 network is in poor condition and very ice, this caused  difficulty on some routes which were not completed. The sever difficulty is highlighted by a gritter overturning last night – fortunately the driver was unhurt.

Today we resalted priority 1 at 06:30hrs and will follow that up with P2 routes mid to late morning. The advice to gritter drivers is to undertake the P2 routes with care and  where they consider it is no safe to do so they should report back and we will deal with the problem in a different way (e.g. jcb and hand salt).

The key message today is that all minor roads are very icy and that extreme care should be taken should you have to venture out. Journeys should only be taken where absolutely necessary. Traffic is very noticeably light on the roads today.

The early forecast is a expecting the weather to remain dry with cloud and any fog thinning to leave some sunshine. It will be cold throughout, though, with road surfaces below zero for much of the time. Tonight, some showery outbreaks of rain and sleet, perhaps briefly preceded by snow, are expected to arrive from the west sometime after 23:00. The rain and sleet may fall onto frozen surfaces in places, leading to the risk of some very icy stretches later in the night. We are likely to rerun P1 routes late afternoon but will make the decision later today.

We are appreciative of the assistance provided by many additional resources helping out from various organisations including our district colleagues, other contractors, farmers and parishes. They are directed at a variety of activities including footway salting, grit bin salt replenishment and  jcb work on icy roads on P” and minor roads.

A further update will follow late afternoon.

Colin Taylor
Assistant Director – Highways and Transport

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