Record low temperatures prompt £140,000 salt effort across 30,000 miles of Lincolnshire roads

About £140,000 worth of salt was used to cover nearly 30,000 miles of roads during last month’s cold snap, the council has revealed.

Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) deployed its fleet of 43 gritters, covering 29,892 miles of road between Sunday, November 18, and Friday, November 22.

The effort consumed £140,000 worth of salt, with seven gritting runs carried out during the week to combat ice and snow.

Temperatures fell to -7°C on Wednesday, November 20, at Cadwell Park, the lowest road surface reading recorded at this time of year.

Darrell Redford, LCC’s network resilience manager, said the cold snap had been “brutal”.

"That's an extremely low surface temperature to deal with, and the rest of the county wasn't much warmer than that for a large part of the past week,” he said.

"We've never seen a road temperature as low as that this early in the year before.”

He commended his team’s tireless work and praised the modern technology playing a vital role in targeting areas most in need, where temperatures plummeted dramatically.

“Thankfully, our prediction data was absolutely spot on, and our gritter teams worked very hard around the clock in the right areas to keep many routes open right across Lincolnshire,” he said.

LCC relies on 12 local weather stations and shares data with neighbouring counties to tailor its gritting strategy.

Two pre-snow salt runs cost £40,000 and laid 746 tonnes.

By Friday, a total of 387 runs had been completed, covering A and B roads, town and village routes, and access roads to hospitals and schools.

The gritters, including Sir Ice-ac Newton and Spread Arrows, remained on alert with four reserves.

"We're ready for the next round of cold weather, and we will use all our resources again for the next part of our tireless efforts to keep Lincolnshire on the road across the coming winter,” said Redford.

The county has a budget of £1.2m a year for salt, and last year, the council spent £1m on the grippy stuff.

The molasses-treated salt lasts five years but is always used sooner.

The most salt ever used in one winter was during the 2010/11 ‘Beast from the East’. That year, a massive 38,000 tonnes of salt was spread on the roads.

LCC urges drivers to remain cautious and adapt to the challenging conditions to help keep Lincolnshire moving.

The county’s gritters were officially blessed at Ancaster’s depot last week.

Leaders from Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Jewish communities offered prayers, goodwill messages, and blessings for the gritters, their operators, and road users, emphasising safety and kindness during wintry conditions.

Father Stuart Cradduck, Rector of St Wulfram’s Grantham, said: “It’s lovely to be part of this blessing for the gritters in the county. The team work very hard in all sorts of very bad weather to keep road users like me safe and it’s very much appreciated.”

Buddhist Monk Reverend Gandō Seiko Garrod was appreciative of the gritting team heading out when the weather is at its worst. He said: “The gritting team has a tough job to do, and they do it well, we have gratitude for that and for those that do the work.”

Darrel Redford, gritter boss at LCC added: “This has been our first multi-faith blessing for the gritters, team and road users and it’s been a real joy to be a part of.

“We’re very thankful to everyone who has come to the depot to help spread the word ahead of the colder conditions coming in.

“It really marks the start of the winter proper for us and reminds us all, and the wider community, about the need to be thankful and considerate when getting about in sometimes perilous conditions.”