SWANSEA Council’s gritting teams have been going the extra mile to keep the city’s main roads free from ice, clocking up practically the distance to Vancouver and back in the process.
Since the start of the cold snap they’ve spread well over 1,600 tons of grit and salt across city roads and have responded to hundreds of emergency call-outs.
Cllr John Hague, Cabinet Member for Environment, paid tribute to gritting teams who have been on call 24 hours a day since the middle of December.
Cllr Hague said: “Since the beginning of December 8,800 miles of road has been gritted- it’s almost the distance to Vancouver and back.”
Cllr Hague said that, like everywhere else across the UK, grit and salt supplies in Swansea are under pressure. But the Highways department was conserving stocks and prioritising fresh deliveries so that main roads are looked after.
Swansea has a gritting network covering more than 300 miles- 45% of the roads in the city and county. Since December gritting teams have travelled the route no less than 28 times and used more than 1,600 tons of grit.
On top of that the highways department has responded to emergency calls, distributing more than 200 tons of grit to hospitals, schools, doctors’ surgeries and grit bins.
Cllr Hague said: “It is important people do understand we can’t cover every single street in Swansea with grit. That’s not something we have ever been able to do and, particularly now, the supplies we have need to be dedicated to keeping the main roads open.”
He said that there had been no significant disruption on the salted routes and there is no reason to believe that there will be. Local streets are being targeted in urgent situations.
Cllr Hague said: “The situation would be much worse if we were to abandon our policy of keeping the main roads open in favour of gritting side roads. But I appreciate that icy side streets do cause problems for some residents and we are responding as best we can to emergency requests.”
