GET YOUR GRIT ON Ready for the cold snap

Get your grit on

With five large electric hybrid gritters on standby, the council’s team will be out working hard to keep main roads moving if a cold snap hits this winter.

Running from early November to the end of April, the council’s winter service grits the main priority roads to ensure emergency vehicles and buses can keep moving if snow or ice strikes. 1,200 tons of salt are stockpiled by the council before the winter and 326 grit bins are filled and available for residents to use.

The fleet of gritters have state-of-the-art electric spreading mechanisms to reduce CO2 emissions, lower noise, and increased fuel efficiency while the council receives a bespoke weather forecast three times a day to ensure the gritters can be deployed speedily when needed.

Cllr Krupa Sheth, Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “As they do every year, our winter preparedness teams will be showing their true grit over the coming months if a cold spell strikes. If snow or ice hits, our gritting teams will be out and about in the early hours of the morning to make sure the main roads are passable. It is another example of key workers making a difference.

“If the cold weather does set in, I hope that residents will look out for older or more vulnerable neighbours as I know many people did last winter.”

For more information, visit www.brent. gov.uk/gritting #Workinghardforbrent

Finding and filling potholes this winter

As the weather gets colder, potholes can emerge as a direct result of snow, ice and long periods of rain that batters the road’s surface. Once a pothole forms, it will get bigger as traffic weakens and dislodges more broken pieces of the road surface.

Brent’s highways and infrastructure team have a targeted pothole patching programme along the A roads, focussing on stretches of road that are at higher risk of deterioration due to cold weather.

The council’s team will find and fix serious potholes that have appeared on main roads and will use injection patching, a new and faster method for repairing potholes, along unclassified residential roads. To report a pothole visit: www.brent.gov.uk/ cleanerbrent