Gritting the roads in winter

We are legally required to treat roads in winter to ensure 'safe passage' as far as is reasonably practical.

We use detailed local forecasts from the London Met Office to predict when frost or ice is likely to form on the road surface.

What we do

When the road temperatures are predicted to be at or below freezing, our gritting crews will be salting the main routes across the borough, with this work typically taking place at night time and or in the early hours of the morning.

We provide 'salt' bins at locations that are not on the priority routes as a self-help facility. These contain grit, rather than salt, as it is more effective on compacted ice and in very low temperatures.  You can also join our snow friends scheme.

To find out what routes we treat, you can download the following:

• priority gritting routes and salt bin location map 
• priority gritting routes - list of roads 
• footway snow clearance areas, snow friends locations and salt bins map 
• salt bin locations - list of roads
• winter service policy (how we treat the roads and pavements)

We are unable to respond to individual requests to treat specific areas immediately. However you can suggest that a road or pavement be added to the winter service treatment routes and this will be reviewed in April 2012

Please note that Transport for London (TFL) is responsible for gritting red routes.  Information about weather conditions is available from the Met Office website.

Live gritting updates

Follow us on Twitter @BromleySnow