29/7/2004 - £3m for winter maintenance

Cumbria County Council's Cabinet has agreed a budget of nearly £3 million for gritting and snow clearance on the county's roads next winter. Sections of recently de-trunked roads such as parts of the A595/A596 between Carlisle and Lillyhall and the former A66 through Great Clifton and Stainburn will be dealt with in the coming winter by the county council instead of the Highways Agency. 

County Councillor Kevan Wilkinson, Cabinet member with responsibility for transport, said: 

"As we do every year, we shall continue to fine tune the winter maintenance service and work on raising the standards on the limited budget we have of £2,968,000. 

"The county council is now responsible for stretches of A roads which are no longer classed as trunk roads, but the extra money for those sections of the network has come from a special government grant. 

"The budget allows for an average winter, but the milder winters we have experienced in recent years bring their own problems. Roads are often wet while conditions are only just above freezing. Just a small drop in the temperature will create icy roads, so they have to be gritted as a precaution, even if they don't always freeze." 

The 7,500 kilometres of roads in the county network are divided for winter maintenance purposes into categories. Priority one roads are major routes and the aim is to treat them within three hours of the gritting teams leaving the depot. 

Priority two roads will be treated within five hours. 

Third priority routes include bus and commuter routes in the urban areas and access to villages in the rural areas. They are treated only after priority one and two routes are clear, during daytime hours or when there is enough time at the end of the night's work and before the normal working day begins, and only when a prolonged period of bad weather is forecast. Some minor roads, however, will receive no treatment. 

Every year the county council reluctantly has to turn down calls for additional roads to be treated, often those serving schools, hospitals and surgeries. To accede to those requests would lay an impossible financial burden on the budget for road maintenance. Also there would not be enough time to treat the extra roads within the timescale available. 

Details of the route priorities will be issued to households in Cumbria before the winter. Anyone with queries or concerns about gritting or snow clearing should first of all contact the Highways Hotline on 0845 6096609 (local rate calls) or on Cumbria County Council's website. The hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.