Council Has Preparations In Place Ahead Of Winter Season
Sixteen hundreds tonnes of salt is being held in reserve should freezing temperatures hit the borough over the coming months.
The salt which has been put aside by Swindon Borough Council is enough to treat the town’s priority routes 40 times. Last year, the Council treated the priority routes 26 times using approximately 1,000 tonnes of salt.
An additional 1,000 tonnes of salt is on provisional order for early in the new year should the weather deteriorate throughout the winter.
A team of 16 drivers and eight gritting lorries will be on stand-by 24 hours a day to grit the priority routes which cover 280 miles of the borough’s 520-mile road network.
The council has also checked the borough’s 474 grit bins, and those that need filling or replacing will be attended to before the end of the month.
Depending on the severity of the weather, up to 125 employees could also be deployed to grit pavements.
The Council’s Homeline service, which assists elderly and vulnerable people, also has 4×4 vehicles so it can respond to emergencies in adverse weather. The service has a 4×4 Response Protocol whereby multi-agency support, including the voluntary sector, is available to assist in emergencies.
The Council has emergency planning procedures in place and staff in many service areas will also be placed on standby in the event of severe weather.
Cllr Keith Williams, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for StreetSmart, said: “We start preparing for winter well in advance as we need to make sure we have the correct contingencies in place.
“We believe we have a sufficient quantity of salt in reserve, but as we are at the mercy of the weather we have allowed for additional reserves should we need it.
“Our winter preparations extend beyond the highway, however, as we need to ensure we have staff ready to respond around the clock and keep our vulnerable residents safe in adverse weather.”
Further information on how to stay safe in an emergency or during adverse weather is available at: http://wiltshireandswindonprepared.org.uk/