Drivers urged to take extra care on the roads

Despite the best efforts of our gritters and crews over the weekend and this morning (25 January), we are receiving reports of some vehicles falling foul of the icy conditions.

We would ask that anyone out and about takes extra care and drives to the conditions.

Our crews carried out salting treatments for ice, then snow, and this was working effectively – however, it then rained on top of the cold road surfaces, not only washing away some of the salt but giving a false impression that some of the roads were wet – when, in fact, it was water lying on top of ice underneath – leaving potentially treacherous and very slippery conditions.

Our gritters and crews were out first thing this morning dealing with this type of very icy and wet conditions and, unfortunately, were being overtaken by motorists. While we understand that it may be frustrating, please leave extra time to get to your destination.

Our crews are doing everything they can to stay on top of the changing conditions, and just because a road has had a treatment of salt, it does not mean that the road is safe to drive on at the national speed limit. Salt takes time to work and needs to be driven over to aid its effectiveness.

So, once again, we would ask that motorists take greater care – it’s better to arrive a little late than not at all.