Sheffield has more grit bins than any other authority, says highways chief

A car skidded and crashed into a tree and two other motorists collided during the school run on Darwin Lane at Crosspool in February.

Local councillor Mohammed Mahroof said: “Darwin Lane, which has two schools and is on a bus route, had a major incident due to unprecedented weather conditions, resulting in many traffic collisions.

“Will this be looked at with a view to mitigating any further problems this winter, including the provision of further grit bins?”

Coun Bob Johnson, Cabinet member for transport and highways, said there was a grit bin within 200 metres at the junction with Darwin Close.

He said: “Sheffield operates the largest percentage precautionary gritting network of any local authority in the UK and has more grit bins for public use than any other council – more than Manchester and Nottingham combined, so our service is significant.

“We are aware of a small number of incidents which involved cars skidding over a very light dusting of snow, thankfully with no injuries reported.

“Our forecasting system had highlighted a chance of a small amount of snowfall on higher ground, and in line with national guidance, all roads over 200m above sea level were treated at the maximum possible spread rate from 7pm the day before.

“Roads below this altitude were treated from midnight, which endeavours to prevent the snow from settling as effectively, and is in line with national best practice for this particular forecast.

“A further treatment commenced at 6.15am, due to snow starting to fall. Given the size of the highway network in Sheffield, a full gritting run takes in the order of six and a half hours, this road was treated by 11am.

“Spreading of salt is not a magic bullet and we do rely on motorists driving appropriately to the road conditions to traffic the salt into the snow, which creates a “brine” – this salty liquid and repeated vehicle movements is what actually melts the snow.

“Given that we had already treated at the maximum rate, more grit bins would not have assisted this process.”