The subject of road gritting was raised at the Parish Council meeting last week and whilst the cold spell is fresh in everyone’s minds it seemed worthwhile explaining how grit is distributed so we can check whether there are any improvements that should be considered.

The cold snap lasted 12 days between 30^th December and 10^th January. Herts County Council  carried out 18 gritting runs with 7 consecutive days of double runs (gritting both day and night) using just over 5,000 tonnes of salt, which is about 50% of its core winter stock covering about 27,000 miles of Primary Network roads in Hertfordshire.

The Primary Network roads in the parish are marked in red on the map below, roads marked in blue are secondary routes; in practice secondary routes are only gritted after cold snaps lasting much longer than the one we’ve just been through. If you want to examine the map in more detail or understand the criteria used to prioritise the routes please go to Gritting routes | Hertfordshire County Council

The lack of gritting along Nettleden Road until relatively late in the cold snap given that it is designated as a primary route is under investigation. 

If you believe that there is a road which should have a higher prioritisation please let the Parish Clerk know, but you will need to make the case based on Highways criteria and other similar roads.

In addition, Herts County Council and the Parish Council have installed nine grit bins around the parish; the map below shows where these are located:

All of these bins were stocked before the cold snap but the grit has to be distributed by residents. 

If the stock in any of these bins is depleted please let the Parish Clerk know.

And if you believe that there are other locations that would benefit from a grit bin please let the Parish Clerk know, again making your case relative to the existing bins.