Letter from the Leader to all Parish Councils - severe winter.
LEADER OF THE COUNTY COUNCIL
County Councillor J K Weighell
Telephone: 08458 727374 County Hall
Northallteron
: North Yorkshire
DL7 8AD

You will all know that we are experiencing one of the most severe winters for decades.
North Yorkshire has been at the heart of this particular winter storm experiencing very cold
temperatures and falls of snow, somewhere in the County, on an almost daily basis since
well before Christmas. At the time of writing this note there is a slight thaw taking place in
lower lying areas of the County but the upland areas are still having some snow and cold
nights still require main roads to be treated. Following this extreme period of weather I
thought it would be helpful to update you on the latest position.

The County Council started the winter with 55,000 tonnes of salt, 15,000 tonnes more than
last year and has bought in significant additional quantities since the start of winter. We
have extensive facilities of covered barns across the County and the service has been in a
very good state of readiness in order to deal with winter. Throughout this period we have
utilised our full fleet of 90 gritters and snow blowers. We have mobilised our 130 farming
contractors, who have done brilliant work on our behalf, and highways teams have been
working around the clock to keep our roads open. The County Council is estimating that it
will have spent £3m more than the annual budget of £6.2m on winter maintenance for the
current financial year.

The severity of the winter weather in North Yorkshire has meant we have used a
considerable amount of our salt stocks, we have only a very small reserve remaining and
because of the national situation and the control being exercised by Government on the
countries two salt suppliers we are finding it extremely difficult to obtain fresh supplies of
rock salt.
As a result of this position we have taken steps on a graduated basis to try and help
preserve rock salt and focus on the highest priority parts of the network. We have had to
stop treating Priority Three routes with salt (these are estate roads and minor/unclassified
roads in the County). However, we will continue to plough snow from these routes when
appropriate and use grit and hard sand. We are currently unable to refill salt bins except in
exceptional circumstances and we are restricting our treatment of footpaths to major
footpaths in town centres only in snow conditions. We realise that there is a large part of the
County’s road network that has remained snow bound for some time. We sympathise with
the public for the frustration and difficulty that this would have caused but I hope that you
would agree that we have, through this difficult period, been able to keep the County’s main
routes well gritted and largely free of snow.

As a consequence of these restrictions that the Government has placed on us obtaining any
further deliveries of rock salt we now have to announce further modifications to our winter
treatment procedures. We will be reducing the number of Priority Two routes that are
treated, we will try and maintain a single access point into villages and communities but we
will stop treating with salt routes that are of a lesser priority for access. This reduction will
affect approximately 25% of Priority Two routes. In terms of the remaining Priority Two
routes we will be treating these routes with a 1:1 mix of salt and grit.

Details of the routes that will be treated with salt will be provided on the County Councils website at
www.northyorks.gov.uk/gritting

and if you would like any further information please contact  our Customer Service Centre on

08458 727374.

It may well be possible that if the cold weather continues or if we are not able to obtain new supplies of rock salt we will have to take measures to reduce further the amount of the road network that is treated.

If this happens I will update you further. Please be assured that within the bounds of managing
our salt stocks we will continue to do everything that we can to provide access on the roads
for the public and businesses.
Finally, the severe winter weather has provided difficulties for us all to manage and the help
that communities and people have provided to each other has been very evident across the
County. The County Council will continue to do all it can to help the public and businesses
and to work with our District and Parish and Town Councils.
With best wishes
JOHN WEIGHELL
Leader of the Council