Shropshire’s gritting teams ready for cold winter weather.

Shropshire’s highways teams have been busy preparing for the onset of winter and are ready to treat the county’s roads whenever ice and snow arrive.

The gritters have already been out three times this week as temperatures start to drop – including last night (Thursday).

Shropshire Council and its highways contractor Kier, has 25 gritters plus three reserve vehicles – ready to treat gritting routes totalling 2353km (1462 miles).

Over the summer, work was carried out to ensure that vehicles and drivers are ready for the winter. Gritters have been serviced and maintained, and a dry run* was carried out at the end of October.

Shropshire Council’s’ fleet also includes four mini gritters, with crews on standby to treat high-risk areas including town centre roads and car parks, and rural roads.

Over 10,000 tonnes of rock salt are now in stock across the council’s three highways depots.

David Vasmer, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways – who joined the gritting team on their dry run – said:

“A great amount of work and planning has gone into keeping us all safe this winter and our highways teams are well prepared for when the worst of the weather hits.

“Every year, when the wintry weather arrives, our gritters and their fantastic crews go out to grit the county’s roads – keeping them safe and accessible during spells of ice and snow, and helping to keep Shropshire moving in even the worst of the weather.

“It was great to join the team for their annual dry run to meet some of the drivers and get a much better understanding of the work that they do – often late at night, early in the morning, on weekends, and sometimes on bank holidays.

“I want to say a big thank you to all of our gritter drivers and crews for the work they will be carrying out in the coming months to keep our roads safe.”

Last winter the gritters were called out 62 times between November 2025 and April 2026.

The gritters are owned by Shropshire Council and located at the council’s highways depots in Shrewsbury, Craven Arms and Whittington.

In addition, many contractors and farmers have snow-clearing equipment and the council’s divisional officers deploy this supplementary equipment following heavy snowfall in rural areas.

Shropshire Council also maintains over 2100 local salt bins during the winter, and people can use salt from their local salt bins to treat pavements and roads.

And the council supports all Shropshire schools to maintain footpaths close to their schools, by providing salt and salt spreaders. Information is available by emailing schoolsaltsupport@shropshire.gov.uk.

For more information on Shropshire’s gritting routes and grit bins, visit the Shropshire Council website.

Further information

*The gritters dry run is carried out to make sure the drivers re-familiarise themselves with the routes, gritters and any alterations, as well as making sure there are no problems with the fleet. All vehicles travel slowly with warning lights to easily identify them to all road users. No grit is used.