Winter gritting
During the winter months Telford & Wrekin Council are continuously working hard to keep you safe and on the move during bad weather.
See below answers to some frequently asked questions about winter maintenance and gritting.
How can I be prepared?
- Always remember that when there is a severe weather warning, only travel when it is absolutely necessary.
- Be aware: Watch the weather forecast and listen to the travel updates locally and nationally.
- Do the necessary safety checks on your car: Check you have enough petrol/diesel for your journey, check your water, wiper blades, oil and tyre pressure before travelling.
- If travelling make sure you pack: warm clothes, ice scraper, de-icer, blankets, torch, first aid kit, shovel, maps/GPS, food, water and sunglasses in case of glare from the sun.
- Get involved: find out about volunteering as a Neighbourhood Snow Warden in your local area. View our Neighbourhood Snow Wardens page for more information about snow wardens.
Where do we grit?
A total of 443.83 kilometres of road are treated across the borough. All the roads are divided into the defined network and non defined network of road depending on their priority. However the Council routinely grits:
Primary routes:
- A and B roads
- Roads serving fire, ambulance and police establishments
- Main bus routes in the following centres: Telford Town Centre, Dawley, Madeley, Newport, Oakengates, Wellington and Ironbridge
- Access roads to transport interchanges.
Secondary routes:
- Other regular bus routes (The regular bus routes are defined as Monday to Friday routes with a minimum of one bus per hour during the main part of the day)
- Feeder roads to schools (roads linking main salting routes to main school entrances)
- Main access roads on industrial estates (Halesfield, Stafford Park, Hortonwood)
- One access route to main villages/hamlets and minor sections of road for continuity.
Priority will always be given to primary routes before secondary routes.
Grit bins may be provided at high risk sites such as steep hills and severe bends.
Do we grit your road?
We grit a large number of roads throughout the borough. To see whether your road is one of them view the interactive map.
Alternatively you can view the map showing the gritting routes in the area. View the gritting routes map for your area.
Why don't we grit your road?
Not all roads can be gritted, but the Council has a list of primary and secondary routes that are gritted.
Priority is given to roads leading to:
- hospitals, fire, ambulance and police stations
- bus and railway stations and other public transport stations
- main shopping areas
- schools.
Do we grit footpaths and cycleways?
Footpaths/cycleways and Borough Towns/district centres that will be treated when frost is forecast are the defined footway routes at the following locations:
- adopted footpaths in Telford Town centre.
Footpaths serving the main shopping areas of:
- Wellington
- Dawley
- Madeley
- Newport
- Ironbridge
- Oakengates.
In the event of prolonged snow or ice footway/cycleway will be treated in a priority order. The order starts with town centres and local district centres.
Last updated : 8 January 2025
Parish/Town councils and Ward Members can request for an assessment for a grit bin on your behalf and an assessment will be carried out by a Winter Maintenance Officer.
If the assessment does not show that the location is a high risk site and if the request is from a Parish Council or Community Group then a grit bin can be provided if a contribution is made towards its provision and annual filling costs. Currently the costs are £100 to install and £40 per annum to fill.
View information on requesting a grit bin in a new location.
Complete our online form to request a grit bin refill
You can report if a road has not been gritted or still icy, you can also request a one-off or emergency gritting, however, this option should only be used for:
- emergencies, for example, where medical staff are unable to get to residents
- requests from emergency services, for example, Police, Ambulance or Fire Service
Do not use to log requests for general icy roads or if you are unable to get out of your road. These are not classed as an emergency - please refer to the Winter Service Policy Statement (.pdf Size: 92Kb) .
Complete our online form for winter gritting routes
Last updated : 18 September 2024
Footpaths/cycletracks and Borough Towns/district centres that will be treated when frost is forecast are the defined footway routes at the following locations:
Adopted footpaths in Telford Town centre.
Footpaths serving the main shopping areas of:
- Wellington
- Dawley
- Madeley
- Newport
- Ironbridge
- Oakengates.
In the event of prolonged snow or ice footway/cycletracks will be treated in a priority order. The order starts with town centres and local district centres.
Our team of winter maintenance officers assess the weather forecast over a 24 hour period to decide what action is necessary. Our main priority is to keep major routes treated and passable to protect road users during poor weather.
To be most effective, the gritting should take place before ice forms or snow settles. Anticipating these conditions, and reacting correctly, depends on a mixture of local knowledge and experience, good local weather forecasts and an awareness of the current road condition e.g. is it wet, dry, previously treated or not etc.
The Council receives two weather forecasts on a daily basis - a 24 hour forecast and a 2 to 5 day forecast. The 24 hours forecast is updated if there are any changes. In addition to this, a morning and early evening summary are also sent by MetDesk.
Visit the Met Office website for weather updates.
The Council also has two weather stations, one at Horsehay and one at Crudgington. There are sensors contained within the road adjacent to the stations, providing surface and air temperatures and other useful meteorological information. You can view this information by clicking on the following link below. Enabled sites are shown in green and by clicking on a site more information is given:
Visit the Traffic Weather website.
This information is also provided to the Council in a more detailed format. To see an example of the information we use please download the sample graph from one of the coldest days of the winter in the borough.
Although most of us call it gritting there is in fact often no grit involved. What we spread on the roads is rock salt taken from an underground mine in Cheshire.
It is more or less the same as the rock salt you would grind into your food, but of a size and composition for road use.
We spread salt directly onto the road at a rate of 10 grams per square metre when frost is forecast or 20 grams per square metre when snow is forecast. This works best when goes into a solution, which is why we rely on the tyres of cars passing over the top of it to crush the salt onto the road. This then forms a solution with a higher de-icing capability.
Water freezes at 0ºC, but salt stops water from freezing until -6º to -8ºC.
Salt will melt snow at temperatures as low as -20ºC. However, salt starts to become less effective at -5ºC. As a result, its use becomes practically, economically and environmentally difficult. In extremely low temperatures, or heavy snowfall, a mix of salt and grit may be used to aid traction.
The salt stock at the beginning of the winter season is around 2700 tonnes which under normal circumstances is our average winter usage. We have a contract with Compass Minerals who replenish salt stocks during the winter season.
Should weather conditions deteriorate to such an extent that gritting is required around the clock, four times in twenty four hours, then by maintaining these stock levels it will allow us to grit continuously for up to 16 days. The DFT national recommendations are that councils should keep a stock of salt equivalent to the minimum of 12 days continuous gritting.
Although we are prepared to deal with severe weather conditions we are dependent on delivery of supplies. Therefore, should those supplies be reduced by circumstance beyond our control, gritting routes may be reduced on rare occasions to cover only the primary routes.
Primary routes:
- A and B roads
- Roads serving fire, ambulance and police establishments
- Main bus routes in the following centres: Telford Town Centre, Dawley, Madeley, Newport, Oakengates and Wellington
- Access roads to transport interchanges.
If we do impose restrictions it is likely that national restrictions will be in place.
Last updated : 30 August 2024