Gritters out in force as Brighton prepares for ice and snow

The city council says it will be gritting roads from 6pm after the Met Office issued a weather warning for freezing weather this week.

All main roads, bus routes and roads leading to local hospitals will be covered.

The council said: "We continue to keep a close watch over the forecast and ensure that our gritting routes are well treated with salt."

Read more: Heavy snow predicted in Brighton and Hove and across Sussex

The council says on its website: "We run a winter highways service from the beginning of November until the end of March, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Keeping the city moving safely is our priority.

"The service includes salt gritting, snow ploughing, pavement clearing and filling grit bins for residents to use."

What the council does

The councils says its team of winter duty managers use "the latest technology" to decide what needs to be done to protect road users during cold weather.

It says: "These managers are on call at all times, including weekends and holiday periods.

"We look at the weather forecast for a 24-hour period and local road temperature data to decide what we need to do."

Roads

The city council has six normal gritting vehicles, an all-terrain gritter and a pavement gritter.

It says: "Our aim is to keep major routes treated and clear.

"During severe weather we try to keep clear all A roads, most B roads and prioritise bus routes and access to local hospitals.

"We treat a total of 156 miles of main routes around the city when weather conditions require it."

But it says salting and gritting does not guarantee that roads will be free of ice and snow.

"We use weather forecasts to try and ensure that we spread salt and grit before severe cold weather strikes.

"This means that traffic will help to mix the salt into any surface water and help to prevent freezing.

"Unfortunately at very low temperatures salt will have no effect at all.

"Salt will not clear heavy snowfall.

"For this we must use a snow plough."

Pavements

The council says it will only grit pavements after main road routes have been cleared.

"During periods of prolonged heavy snowfall, we will clear pavements in priority order depending on which areas of the city are affected – starting with main shopping areas and pedestrian routes, then other pavements and local shopping areas."

Who else looks after roads around the city?

The A23, M23, A27, A27 Brighton bypass and the A23 north of the A27 Junction are maintained by Highways England

Ditchling, Falmer and Saltdean borders are maintained by East Sussex County Council

Fishersgate and Devils Dyke borders are maintained by West Sussex Highways.

The Met Office has issued a snow and ice yellow weather warning in Brighton & Hove from 9pm tomorrow (Tuesday) until noon on Wednesday.