Snow joke for Council gritters!

Rochdale Borough Council Snow Plough/Gritter at work on the Borough's roads

With heavy snow causing chaos on Rochdale's roads, many people have given up trying to traverse the town by car and some have had to abandon cars. Rochdale Online asked the Council what is being done to alleviate the problem and does the Council have sufficient resources to cope...

A council spokesperson said: “Gritters have been out all weekend and today (Sunday), we started at 5am and have been gritting continuously ever since. There is sufficient grit to cover our immediate needs – and we have a further 1,000 tonnes being delivered tomorrow. We have also contacted some of our neighbouring authorities, including those who have been less affected by the snow fall, to ensure that we could source grit from elsewhere should we need to. It is unlikely that this will be needed, but wherever possible, we try to build the unforeseen into our plans just in case.”

It is understood that principal routes have been gritted as a priority today and gritters will be out overnight tonight and completing what the Council terms “full grits”.

Grit is most effective if it is ground in by vehicles driving over it. Because there have been fewer vehicles on the road today, the grit hasn’t been as effective as it would if there was more traffic out. With the increase in traffic tomorrow morning this should help the situation.