Council

Agenda Item 74   

Subject:                    Gritting & Highways Winter Service Plan

Date of meeting:    30 January 2025

Proposer:                 Councillor Muten

Seconder:                Councillor Allen

Ward(s) affected:   All

Notice of Motion

Labour Group Amendment

That deletions are made as shown with strikethrough below and additional recommendations are added as shown in bold italics below:

This council notes:

1) The impact of a changing climate on our city includes more extreme weather events.

2) Recent Forecasted heavy rainfall turning to snowfall this January which led to traffic disruption in outlying parts of the city becoming disconnected from outside due to issues with whilst Council winter maintenance putting grit on roads.

3) That within the current gritting priority list does not take account of location, gradient, and community access which is only a are all factors in when considering where to put grit bins.

4) The gritting priority list is designed using a risk based approach need to better connect outlying areas of the city using key strategic priority routes via direct roads that link roads to schools, hospitals and other medical centres for example as well as the key distributorsduring periods of below freezing conditions heavy snowfall.

5) The Emergency Planning Unit continued close working with representatives of traffic police, bus companies, fire service and health bodies as well as the business and voluntary community sector to coordinate the stakeholder response to severe natural events such as heavy snowfall. it liaises with these stakeholders periodically.

6) The lack of rephasing of traffic lights at key junctions when the snow meant that normal traffic light timings were not appropriate to use.

7) The Winter Maintenance Team work through the night, gritting city-wide during freezing conditions. 400 grit bins across the city help communities to alleviate the problems caused for residents by ungritted pavements.

Therefore, resolves to:

1) Request the Administration to undertake its annual review of the city’s 400 grit bins, while bring a report to Cabinet looking at additional sites for  some relocated grit bins and grit drops as requirements necessitate and an update which will repeat annually to the Brighton & Hove Highways Winter Service Plan.

2) Ask Thank officers for their prompt response to consider how best to seek resident feedback about how as the council dealt with the sudden heavy snowfall across Brighton and Hove this month when heavy rainfall was forecast through a consultation exercise.

3) Thank members of the community who came out to help others as well as to clear snow and ice, such as farmers who rescued cars in Woodingdean, school communities who helped colleagues, and residents who helped assist their neighbours in a wonderful show of solidarity.

Supporting Information:

Current Winter Service Plan from 2019: highways-winter-service-plan-2019-2020.pdf (https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/sites/default/files/migrated/article/inline/highways-winter-service-plan-2019-2020.pdf)

Woodingdean farmers helped to rescue cars during snow | The Argus

(https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24845608.woodingdean-farmers-helped-rescue-cars-snow/)

Recommendations to read if carried:

This council notes:

1) The impact of a changing climate on our city includes more extreme weather events.

2) Forecasted heavy rainfall turning to snowfall this January which led to traffic disruption in outlying parts of the city whilst Council winter maintenance put grit on roads.

3) That within the current gritting priority list location, gradient, and community access are all factors in when considering where to put grit bins.

4) The gritting priority list is designed using a risk based approach to better connect outlying areas of the city using key strategic priority routes via direct roads that link roads to schools, hospitals and other medical centres for example as well as the key distributors during periods of below freezing conditions.

5) The Emergency Planning Unit continued close working with representatives of traffic police, bus companies, fire service and health bodies as well as the business and voluntary community sector to coordinate stakeholder response to severe natural events such as heavy snowfall. it liaises with these stakeholders periodically.

6) The Winter Maintenance Team work through the night, gritting city-wide during freezing conditions. 400 grit bins across the city help communities to alleviate the problems caused for residents by ungritted pavements.

Therefore, resolves to:

1) Request the Administration to undertake its annual review of the city’s 400 grit bins, while looking at additional sites for some relocated grit bins and grit drops as requirements necessitate.

2) Thank officers for their prompt response as the council dealt with the sudden heavy snowfall across Brighton and Hove this month when heavy rainfall was forecast.

3) Thank members of the community who came out to help others as well as to clear snow and ice, such as farmers who rescued cars in Woodingdean, school communities who helped colleagues, and residents who helped assist their neighbours in a wonderful show of solidarity.