City gears up to tackle arctic winter

A snow warden scheme, increased salt supplies and social media updates all form part of York Council’s plans to step up its response to severe weather following last winter’s big freeze.

Sally Burns, the council’s director of communities and neighbourhoods, said: “Last year’s winter weather was some of the worst we had seen for many years. We have looked at how we can improve on our response to the bad weather and hope that the new measures we have put in place will help keep York’s highways moving and ensure that residents are well supported.”

A new snow warden scheme will see over 80 volunteers clear footpaths in their community, with wardens receiving daily weather and action updates from November until March.

Other improvements include increasing the number of salt bins from 307 to 357, putting a new salt supply system into force and using four more footpath snow blowers, as well as an extra six salt spreaders.In extreme weather the council’s call centre will remain open and there will also be regular updates on its website and Twitter.