Gritting crews have completed their first major battle of the winter to keep our roads safe. But as MIKE LAYCOCK reports, there's a price to pay for their efforts - and it's likely the gritters will be needed again before spring arrives.

THE yobs who attacked a York gritting lorry were dangerously stupid, but their actions had at least one ironic benefit.

They reminded motorists how the city's True Grit workers had battled day and night last week to keep the city's main roads safe from black ice and snow.

City of York Council says its crews, using ten gritting lorries and two gritter trailers, salted 360 kilometres of designated, high-priority routes 13 times after the cold spell began just after Christmas.

A council spokesman said approximately 50 per cent of York's highway network was salted - a much higher percentage than many other authorities achieve. "We hope this has helped keep the city moving during the cold spell," he said.

But the gritters did not use traditional rock salt, turning instead to a new product called Safecote - salt coated with a thin layer of derivatives from the sugar production process. It costs more than plain rock salt, but less needs to be used, and the council's fleet of gritters require less maintenance after using it.

Approximately 520 tonnes of the stuff was spread last week on designated roads - primary routes into and across the city. Another 250 tons were spread on Wednesday and Thursday on non-designated roads, such as the Bell Farm estate, where a lorry windscreen was shattered by a snowball containing a stone last Thursday.

That attack was branded "unprovoked and senseless" by civil engineering manager Martin Horner, who promptly withdrew the service from Bell Farm, saying: "The safety of our drivers is paramount...We are not prepared to put them in unnecessary danger."

Priority footpaths in areas such as the city centre, for example Parliament Street, Piccadilly, Petergate and Coney Street, were treated five times through the week.

"The council's gritting teams have worked really hard over the past week and we would like to thank them for all their efforts during what, for many people, is a holiday period," said the council spokesman.

But all that effort and salt has not come without a cost - and the bill in York for last week's cold blast came to about £100,000.

The spokesman said the total budget set aside for winter gritting was £560,000, although funding would always be found for gritting work if required.

North Yorkshire County Council was unable to say how much had been spent last week, but said it had budgeted to spend whatever was needed to keep roads clear this winter.

Spokesman Tony Webster said: "Operating on a shift basis, there are 60 crews out across the county at any one time, treating 6,000 miles of priority routes.

"We believe we have coped well, although there are always areas for improvement.

"The crews do a fantastic job, often unnoticed unless they fail to clear a particular route. They were on standby over Christmas, and were working from Christmas Day night."

East Yorkshire suffered some of the worst snow and ice problems last week, hitting the national news bulletins when scores of vehicles became stuck in snow drifts at Arras Hill, between Beverley and Market Weighton.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council officers were unavailable for comment, but Stamford Bridge councillor Hilary Saynor said the authority's gritters had worked well in the face of particular difficulties caused when wind blew across the Wolds countryside, where many fields had no hedges on their boundaries.

"Roads can be ploughed and gritted, but covered again within ten minutes by snowing blowing off the fields," she said.

Weathermen are predicting milder weather for at least the first part of January, but it seems unlikely we have seen the last of snow and ice.

Experts have predicted that Britain is set to experience its most severe winter for at least a decade - but at least we know the gritters are ready for whatever the elements throw at our roads.

Updated: 09:46 Monday, January 02, 2006