Winter Wellbeing – preparing for severe winter weather

 

Cheshire East Council and its partners are offering a range of advice and support to residents on how to keep warm, well and safe this winter.

This week, we outline what our highways service is doing to keep the roads safe before the cold weather really hits.

Cheshire East highways team says it is fully equipped to cope as the winter weather begins to take hold.

As part of the Council and partners’ Winter Wellbeing campaign, the authority, armed with stockpiles of salt, an online information centre and modern gritting vehicles, is reminding residents of its preparations and current actions.

Councillor David Topping, Cabinet member in charge of the environment, said: “Winter weather can be a worrying time for many people, especially those who need to travel. We aim to be as informative as possible in the event of severe weather conditions.

“I want to reassure residents that we are well equipped to deal with snow and ice in the weeks and months ahead.”

Duty officers receive detailed weather reports, around the clock, during the winter months. These officers then decide if gritting vehicles or snow ploughs are required.

Thanks to Cheshire East highways’ online service information centre, gritting vehicles can be tracked live as they salt local routes by logging on to: www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/highways

Councillor Topping added: “The monitoring of weather conditions here in Cheshire East never stops during the winter months. Gritting vehicles or snow ploughs can be dispatched in minutes in the event of conditions deteriorating quickly.

“Freezing temperatures usually result in gritting taking place twice a day – once in the early hours of the morning and again in the evening – but this can be increased or decreased according the conditions that day. Crews have been sent out regularly over the past few weeks to salt the roads, particularly on higher ground.

“We cannot guarantee that the route will be completely ice or snow-free – what we can do is ensure that every effort is made to keep salt stocks high, monitor weather conditions and take the appropriate action.”

Councillor Janet Clowes, Cabinet member in charge of health and adult social care, said: “Frozen roads, as well as the extra hours of darkness, bring obvious additional risks, such as falls and involvement in road traffic accidents.

“For older people, a relatively gentle fall can result in a serious fracture. For Cheshire East’s most vulnerable citizens, winter can also mean increased loneliness and isolation.

“With this in mind, I would urge those feeling vulnerable to ask a friend, family member or neighbour to help them out with simple but important daily routines, such as their food shopping or getting rubbish out to their bins.”