Gritting in North Yorkshire: How you can find out if and when your road is going to be gritted during cold snap

The new road gritting map – which can be found here – allows residents to search through a location, street name or postcode and find out if and when the road has been gritted. The map even shows when gritters are out on their routes and allows users to track their movements. It also allows users to identify the primary and secondary routes which are gritted the most.

The council said: “Our gritting crews are on call 24 hours a day between October and April. They will treat North Yorkshire roads whenever needed.”

The website also has access to 27 roadside cameras, which relay live images of conditions on key routes around the county to help drivers plan their journey.

Executive member for highways and transportation, Coun Keane Duncan, said: “Our gritting crews go out in all weathers and at all hours to make sure the county’s road network is open and as safe as possible. Keeping North Yorkshire moving is a key priority for the county council and our annual budget of more than £7m enables us to deliver one of the UK’s most comprehensive winter programmes.

“We’re immensely proud of the service we are able to deliver for the public. We treat almost 3,000 miles – 54 per cent – of our total road network and in a typical season make 6,600 runs.”

The council’s salt barns have capacity for about 55,000 tonnes of salt, which is bought locally from Boulby Potash Mine. It also has 8,000 salt heaps and bins around the county. The highways team recently invested more than £2m in new gritters for its modern fleet, which comprises 79 vehicles, including two electric-bodied gritters.

The team is supported by about 100 farming contractors, who help to keep the roads clear in their locations during more challenging conditions.

Coun Duncan added: “Drivers should always drive in accordance with road and weather conditions and should avoid unnecessary journeys during periods of bad weather. Road conditions can deteriorate quickly in severe weather, however, even when they have been gritted or ploughed.

“It’s important for drivers to remember that gritting does not guarantee an ice-free surface and salt becomes less effective the further the temperature drops. Rain and surface water run-off can also reduce the effectiveness of gritting by washing salt away. Treated roads need traffic to drive over them to grind the salt and activate it. Salt alone does not melt snow and ice.”

Motorways and trunk roads are the responsibility of National Highways, who grit their roads on a separate schedule. Temperatures is Yorkshire are set to drop to well below freezing in the coming days, having already dropped as low as minus eight in some parts of North Yorkshire in recent days.

A yellow weather warning has been issued by the Met Office, which lasts until Monday.