Saturday 28th November 2020, 1200 hours
Forecast
Today, most places will be dry with bright or sunny spells developing. However, it will be chilly. Staying chilly into this evening with clear intervals.
Tonight, clear intervals will gradually give way to increasing amounts of cloud from the south. Patchy mist, drizzle and hill fog are likely to develop later on. Gentle winds.
Tomorrow is likely to be a mostly cloudy day with local drizzle and local hill fog. However, the odd brighter interval is possible. A gentle to moderate southerly wind.
Forecast minimum road surface temperature -0.8 degrees.
Actions
Primary carriageway routes will be treated from 1500 hours this afternoon.
To view our primary and secondary gritting routes, please use our gritting routes and grit bin location finder.
Gritting and roads policy
Every day during winter we study the weather forecasts to decide if we need to treat any of our roads with salt.
Weather and road conditions can vary significantly across North Lanarkshire so we may need to treat roads in one area but not another.
We cannot treat all roads at the same time so, with our partner Amey, we prioritise and treat according to our Winter Service Policy and Procedures.
Top priority is given to:
- All 'A' and 'B' roads, main distributor roads and main roads in the vicinity of schools
- Major bus routes
These routes serve our main communities and allow the majority of road users to travel across the council area and link with trunk roads and motorways.
- We also prioritise access road to hospitals, ambulance depots, and main police and fire stations
When severe weather is forecast these priority routes are usually treated with salt from 5am before the morning peak and again in the evening if freezing weather continues and road conditions require. If we have snow these routes will be our priority to keep clear.
Priority routes cover 57% of our public road network. Amey has a fleet of 32 gritters and 27 tractors fitted with snow ploughs and salt spreading equipment.
More information is available from our Winter Services Q&A.
Footpaths
We have a similar system for treating footpaths. We prioritise:
- Urban shopping areas and precincts
- Main pedestrian routes linking homes, schools, shopping and industrial areas.
Trunk Roads / Motorways
Trunk roads and motorways (the M8, M73, M74) are the responsibility of the Scottish Government. You can find live information on the motorway network at Traffic Scotland.
Grit bins
We have more than 2,690 grit bins across North Lanarkshire for residents to use on their local streets.
The number of grit bins has increased by 350% in recent years, to a point that we cannot continue to effectively maintain them all. As part of the budget setting process earlier this year, the council decided to reduce the number by 20%. A new process has also been agreed to assess any new requests for grit bins against a set criteria.
We will begin the rationalisation process over the coming months by removing some bins in areas where there are more than required and when they are empty.
Grit bins will only be topped up on request when resources are available.
Full details are available in our Winter Services Policy and Procedures.
We would ask residents to use these to keep local paths and streets clear and safe, and to help elderly neighbours who might not be able to clear the paths adjacent to their own properties.
Stay in touch
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and receive instant updates on our winter services and any disruptions caused by bad weather.
You can also sign up to email alerts and stay in touch with the latest Winter Services news.
