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The winter season commenced on 1st November 2011 and full standby arrangements will be in place until 31st March 2012. If adverse conditions occur outside of that period, contingency arrangements will be in place to respond accordingly. Our objectives are: To minimise delays, accidents and damage resulting from ice and snow. To undertake winter service effectively and efficiently. To try to prevent ice from forming on priority routes by precautionary gritting. To melt ice and snow already formed by post-gritting. To remove snow causing an obstruction. It will not be possible to cover all routes at all times, and the plan is based on prioritisation based on a risk analysis. However given the scale of financial and other resources involved in delivering the Winter Service and the obvious difficulties in maintaining high levels of plant utilisation for specialist equipment, it is not practically possible either to: provide the service on all parts of the network; ensure running surfaces are kept free of ice or snow at all times, even on the treated parts of the network. In these circumstances, in order to comply with the changes in legislation, it will be necessary to undertake risk assessments to establish which routes should be included in a programme of treatment during inclement weather. In particular, the treatment of footways must be fully addressed taking account of risk to all highway users and consideration of the available resources. It will not be possible cover all routes at all times therefore priority roads such as main roads will be gritted first. More details can be found at http://www.havering.gov.uk/Pages/Roadsgritting.aspx 29.11.11 |
Christmas is coming and the gritters are on standby to tackle the winter chill. Whether or not we have a winter as severe as the last remains to be seen, but the council have issued the following guidance on dealing with icy conditions.