Recovery crew sent to rescue stricken gritter after incident on icy Sheffield road

The vehicle was one of the fleet of Sheffield gritters sent out to salt the roads across the city as temperatures plunged below zero again over night.

It is understood that the vehicle ran into trouble as it was out gritting on West Lane, near Bradfield, a rural part of the city.

A spokesman for the Streets Ahead team which operate the city’s gritters, said that the vehicle had seen its wheels end up in a ditch next to the road, and had become stuck.

It is understood a recovery truck was sent out to free the gritter, which was able to continue after it had been pulled from the ditch.

The gritter is said to be undamaged, and its crew members were unhurt in the incident.

Emergency services were not required to attend the incident

Sheffield Council’s Streets Ahead team had been out gritting priority routes across the city from 7pm, with a very cold night having been forecast. They are expected to be gritting again tonight across the city.

Sheffield has seen freezing temperatures for much of the week, since snow arrived in the city on Sunday. Temperatures are expected to warm up next week.

Streets Ahead said in a statement this afternoon: “With another very cold night forecast our teams will be gritting all Sheffield priority gritting routes from 7pm this evening. We're continuing to refill empty grit bins each day. “

Meanwhile, Streets Ahead says its teams have refilled over 1,000 grit bins this week, and continue to refill empty grit bins as quickly and methodically as possible.

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Gritting and snow clearing is carried out by private firm Amey, under the Streets Ahead name, for Sheffield City Council.

They grit roads on a priority basis.

Priority one routes link Sheffield to other major cities and motorway. Priority two is other main roads and rural routes.

Sheffield has a fleet of 19 gritters. They were named in a competition in November.