AS A predicted cold spell approaches, Hampshire’s fleet of winter salting vehicles are ready to roll, says the county council.

Councillor Seán Woodward, Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment at Hampshire County Council, said: “Hampshire’s highways teams will be doing all they can to ensure Hampshire keeps moving all through the winter, whatever the weather. We have a fleet of winter vehicles and full stocks of salt, and are committed to ensure everyone living and working in Hampshire can carry on using the highway network to go to work, school and college all through the winter.”

To help keep roads and paths free of ice, there are around 3,700 salt bins across the county, all filled and ready for the winter.

And weather and road conditions are monitored around the clock, with staff and 51 salting vehicles on standby 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

As a large county, temperatures and conditions can vary quite significantly, so Hampshire is divided into two distinct weather bands and this helps highways teams to decide when and where to spread salt: the northern weather band broadly covers all routes north of Romsey, Bishops’ Waltham and Horndean, with the southern weather band covering Fareham, Gosport, Havant, the New Forest and surrounding areas.

With 5,280 miles of road in Hampshire, roads are salted on a priority basis. ‘Priority One’ routes carry the majority of Hampshire’s traffic and include A roads, some B roads, major bus routes, roads to major emergency services, large schools, areas of high traffic concentration and public transport areas. During prolonged severe weather, ‘Priority Two’ routes, which include remaining B roads and single access roads to villages, may also be treated. Additionally, community routes can be treated which include roads to other smaller schools, GPs surgeries and areas of community activity.

More details on when, where and how much salt to use from the community bins, along with maps to pinpoint their locations and priority salt route maps are available at www.hants.gov.uk/saltbins Information on where and when roads are salted is available at: