All stocked up and ready to keep roads rolling

Gritting teams will be on low-risk standby in Nottinghamshire from Monday ready to cope with the winter weather.

Salt barns are already well-stocked with 10,000 tonnes more salt stockpiled than official recommendations.

Overall, the council has the capacity to store around 20,000 tonnes of salt – some 18,000 tonnes of it under cover.

Via East Midlands, which manages the county’s highways network, will carry out the winter maintenance operations based at four depots - Newark, Bilsthorpe, Markham Moor and Gamston.

Mr John Cottee, the chairman of the community and place committee, said: "Winter maintenance is a high priority for us, so we plan for it all year round so we are in a strong position and ready for whatever winter throws at us.

"Last year felt like a particularly long, harsh winter, especially with the infamous Beast from the East making its full force felt. Our gritting crews were out in very tough conditions and were certainly in high demand. They did a sterling job working around the clock keeping the county moving."

The county has 117 main route runs, as well as 23 severe weather runs. Last year crews more than doubled the previous season’s tally of 60 runs, clocking up 142,5000 more kilometres than the previous year.

Said Mr Cottee: "There’s no doubt that last year’s winter also took its toll on roads throughout the county which meant that our highways team had to repair 95,000 potholes between January and August - nearly twice as many over the same time period as the previous year."

The team manager at Via East Midlands, Mr Kevin Heathcote, said they were ready to treat gritting routes as and when it is needed.

"Last winter was really challenging for us and we spent a lot of time out on our routes," he said. "All our staff worked remarkably hard doing their best to keep the roads clear."

All 30 gritting lorries in the county’s fleet are equipped with an CCTV system, to help monitor road surface conditions as well as being tracked by GPS technology.

Checking and refilling of the 1,300 roadside grit bins has already begun and deliveries of salt to parish councils are planned for November.