Gritting

Main Details

Lancashire County Council aims to provide a winter maintenance service which, as far as is reasonably practicable, will permit the safe movement of traffic on priority roads at all times and will keep to a minimum delays and accidents in which ice or snow is a contributory factor.

We identify priority gritting routes for the planned winter service and using specialist road forecasts from the Met Office and real time information from our 14 road weather stations, identify when and where to grit (salt). Gritting operations are first focused on the busiest roads to maximise benefits to road users and the County Council constantly strives to improve its service delivery.

Lancashire County Council is responsible for 6961 kilometres of highway. Approximately 2418 kilometres form the winter service priority network as it would be impractical to keep all roads clear of ice or snow at all times.

During periods of snow and severe weather, our operations may take considerably longer to complete. We will use all available resources to clear the priority network and the remaining network in a priority order. Typically THIS WILL TAKE SEVERAL DAYS and the weather situation may have improved before we can complete the entire network.

Motorways and Trunk Roads - The M6, M55, M65 (J1 to 10), A56 (from M65 to M66), A570 (from M58 to Southport) and A585 (from M55 to Fleetwood), are the responsibility of the Highways Agency for Central Government - Information Line 08457 50 40 30.  (Lancashire County Council is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites.) 

For Priority and Secondary Gritting Routes go to our mapping system for the most up to date information. Alternatively call our Customer Services Centre on: 0845 053 0011.