Maidenhead & Windsor

The Royal Windsor and Maidenhead Borough is setting the winter gritting wheels in motion and salting local roads as forecasters predict temperatures likely to fall to below freezing overnight.

The Windsor and Maidenhead council's highways maintenance contractors Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services are currently on 24-hour standby as part of the annual winter gritting programme – and will take to the roads from 7.30pm tonight to grit the borough's primary roads.

Salting the Windsor and Maidenhead borough's roads is carried out on a priority basis:

· primary routes which make up more than one-third of the area's roads – covering 145 miles (232km) of the borough's roads with the heaviest traffic – are regularly salted when weather forecasts indicate that road conditions are likely to deteriorate
· secondary routes – seven per cent of the network covering 31 miles (41 km) are salted during prolonged adverse weather conditions. These routes include some bus routes, roads outside schools, hospitals and some minor roads.
· town centre footways in Maidenhead, Windsor, Ascot, Cookham, Datchet, Eton, Old Windsor, Sunningdale and Sunninghill are also salted during prolonged adverse weather conditions.

Cllr Colin Rayner, lead member for Windsor and Maidenhead highways, said this week: "The safety of our residents and visitors – both motorists and pedestrians – is of paramount importance as they negotiate the borough's roads, particularly during the cold days and dark nights of the winter months ahead.

"We are fairly fortunate that in the past ten years we have not suffered great extremes of weather in this area – but we are confident that we are ready and able to cope with the sort of levels we have experienced in the past.

"I would also like to remind residents to make sure their cars are ready for winter driving conditions too." (see the RAC website at www.rac.co.uk and the AA website at www.theaa.com for tips on preparing for winter motoring).

Stephen Brown, head of Windsor and Maidenhead highways added: "Temperatures are predicted to fall below freezing tonight so our gritters will be out for the first time this winter. We will continue to carefully monitor the forecast for the rest of this week and send out the gritters whenever there is similar risk of temperatures dipping to below freezing."

The annual gritting programme is monitored by the Royal Borough highways and engineering team, with duty managers on 24-hour call using information from the London Weather Centre and their computerised road sensor system to make decisions on when to send out the gritter lorries. The aim is to complete the salting before any roads become icy. Spreading the salt usually takes about four hours from the time a decision is taken.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead