Caerphilly County Borough Council’s gritting teams since before Christmas have travelled the same distance it would have taken to go around the moon, which means they’ve travelled over 6,800 miles keeping Caerphilly open for business over the last three weeks.
With the highways network totalling over 1,150 kilometres, a standard gritting run covers 485km on 9 gritting routes. When severe weather conditions occur, 54 trained personnel are called upon to operate the 13 specialist vehicles within the authority.
With the likelihood of more wintry weather in the coming weeks, the Council is reinforcing its commitment to do all it can to keep the main roads clear of any potential snow and ice.
It is no secret that many local authorities have used a larger amount of salt than anticipated during the recent weather conditions and Caerphilly County Borough Council is no exception.
Cllr. Rob Gough, Cabinet Member for Public Protection, Engineering and Transport said, “Our staff work tirelessly to ensure the roads are safe for residents, which includes re-filling the 750 grit bins that are situated right across the Caerphilly borough“.
He continued, “It is important that our residents understand that we have done all we can to calculate our salt use early on, and placed orders to replenish our salt stocks. We are however, competing with authorities across the UK for replenishing our salt stock”.
“Although we cannot guarantee the side streets and smaller roads will be treated, unless there is a very severe snow fall, staff will continue to put in the hours throughout the winter months to help make our roads safe for residents and emergency services”.
For further information, please contact 01443 866511 or visit the Winter road treatment page.
