Mild Autumn Ground Gritters ,

The County Council tested its twenty five gritters and two snow blowers along 840 miles of the busiest roads in October in preparation for the winter weather. But it wasn't until this December that the gritters were called out.

50 drivers are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week along with a network of local farmers to defend our roads against severe winter weather. They have been called out three times so far this month.

Winter maintenance is a massive operation in the county, and to ensure it goes smoothly drivers and vehicles were tested along the 25 different routes which are gritted during the severe weather. This year, a whopping 9000 tonnes of salt is ready for use and is stored in depots across the county.

Every gritter carries up to nine tonnes of salt and puts down between five and nine tonnes on each route, depending on how severe the weather is. Most years there are between 30 and 35 callouts and around 6,000 tonnes of salt is used. The decision on whether and when to carry out gritting is taken by the duty manager who has access to specialist data both nationally and locally from remote weather monitoring stations at Ashcombe, Golden Cross, Mark Cross and Guestling and specialist forecasts.

The target is then to have treated all routes within 3 hours of the specified start time. East Sussex Highways East Sussex Highways looks after the roads and footways in East Sussex.The people delivering the service work in partnership for both the County Council and May Gurney.