HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
WINTER MAINTENANCE TOPIC GROUP
THURSDAY 2 APRIL 2009 & FRIDAY 3 APRIL 2009 AT 10.00 AM
Agenda Item No.
4(b)
EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE HIGHWAYS AND TRANSPORT CABINET
PANEL MEETING HELD ON 11 FEBRUARY 2009
1A. RECENT INCLEMENT WEATHER – WINTER HIGHWAYS MAINTENANCE UPDATE
Rob Smith, Assistant Director of Environment (Transport Management) stated that
given the recent spell of inclement weather ice and heavy snow falls - especially
Monday 2 February 2009 it would be useful if he gave an update on how Hertfordshire
Highways had responded, which included 5,500 tonnes of grit / salt being spread onto
highways in Hertfordshire.
He stated that the Council’s stocking levels of grit rock salt had permitted roads to be
gritted on each occasion when weather forecasts indicated they were necessary
to keep the higher category / well used roads safe for use. Concerns about the supply
of grit rock salt being exhausted had led the Eastern Region to co ordinate supplies with
the objective of assisting all highway authorities to maintain a supply
of grit rock salt throughout this difficult period. He advised that assistance had been
given by 4 out of the 10 Hertfordshire District / Borough Councils with snow and ice
clearing of highways plus a number of farmers had helped with clearing roads.
69 gritting outings had already been undertaken this winter whereas this year’s winter
maintenance plan provided for 42 outings culminating in an overspend this winter so far
of £1.2m with two more months still to be experienced.
He advised that another consequence of the extreme bad weather was the number of
pot hole problems on Hertfordshire roads that were occurring. Hertfordshire Highways
would respond in line with the Council’s current strategy for repair of urgent pot holes.
It may be necessary to review spending priorities in the light of this development. He
emphasised that the current situation would not stop any works to highways which were
deemed necessary to keep them safe for public use and funds would be found for such
works.
He stated that the winter maintenance crews and support staff had had to work
exceptionally long hours particularly over the last two weeks which had resulted
in most, if not all, Hertfordshire high priority / well used roads open for safe use during
this period and thanked them for this.
The Executive Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs paid tribute to the
work undertaken by the winter maintenance crews and support staff during the winter
period so far and given the extent of the severe weather conditions relative few
problems arising from the maintenance operations and complaints had been received.
The Executive Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs thanked the
4 Hertfordshire District / Borough Councils who had assisted with snow / ice clearing
works in particular, Watford Borough Council who acquired additional salt and spread it
on footways / footpaths in Watford Town Centre.
In response to a complaint that there had been delay in starting gritting operations on
the night of Sunday 1 February 2009, he stated that the timing of gritting is done based
on weather predictions from the Met Office and their forecast of time of snowfall was an
hour out, which led to 1 hour of snowfall prior to gritting starting.
He felt that there maybe things to be learnt from this severe test of the current
maintenance operations and this would be worthy of an one off scrutiny exercise to
consider specific issues such as : 
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what could have been done better;
are there other ways other than relying on weather forecasts from the Met Office to
determine when and at what time gritting operations should be undertaken;
how could prompt clearance of snow and ice on footways/ footpaths in towns be
best achieved to aid safe use by pedestrians
use of salt bins to salt local public highways including misuse
possible assistance from District / Borough Councils during periods of severe
weather plus other additional assistance i.e local farmers, plant operators.
He advised that at a recent Regional meeting he had spoken to Barbara Follett, the MP
for Stevenage to lobby central Government for extraordinary funding to meet the recent
increased cost of gritting highways and she had undertaken to pursue this if information
from local authorities backing this request was presented to her.
Furthermore he proposed to update all Members on the situation at the County Council
meeting on 24 February 2009 in response to a question being asked.
He confirmed the Council’s commitment to undertake maintenance works to keep high
priority / well used roads open for safe use with such cost having to be met.
He commented with the recent thawing of snow and heavy rainfall on 10 February 2009
had resulted in 170 incidents of flooding on Hertfordshire roads and a police incidents
room had been set up to deal with arising issues.
In response to questions, Rob Smith stated that there were in excess of 800 salt bins
throughout Hertfordshire and requests for provision of additional bins were determined
on assessed need. The replenishing of stocks of salt within these bins had been
undertaken 3 times during the recent bad weather. Reference was made to incidents
of misuse of these salt bins to solely make safe private drives.