Snow patrols snap up the new gritters

A plan to give volunteer groups hand-propelled gritting machines has gone into overdrive — before the first snowflakes have fallen.

The visionary idea by Councillor Alan Roughley from Denshaw saw 20 mini-gritters to combat winter weather snapped up by communities across Saddleworth and Lees within days of the scheme being announced.

Now the District Partnership has ordered another 10 machines to meet demand Councillor Roughley said: “It’s very gratifying such considerable interest has been shown in the project. The latest batch of gritters should be with the remaining groups before Christmas.”

The machines, costing about £200 each, have been paid for from funds passed down from Oldham Council to the District Partnership and are intended to deal with specific needs of Saddleworth and Lees.

Householders in isolated communities will operate as volunteer groups using the machines on side roads and pavements inaccessible to grit wagons.

The councillor, who thought of the novel idea in the wake of last year’s snows, said: “It’s hard work spreading road grit by hand and these simple devices make the task much easier.”

Each machine holds about 65lbs of grit and spreads to about three metres wide for up to 150 metres. Volunteers will agree to grit their area whenever advised of heavy frost and snow.

Councillor Roughley is working on a plan of weather alerts which could be texted or e-mailed to volunteers simultaneously.

Oldham Council has already announced plans to keep traffic moving on priority routes and having 550 grit bins in place for the worst of the weather.

It has a stockpile of 3,000 tonnes of salt held for immediate use, which is increased to 3,500 tonnes between now and February, and replenished on a weekly basis when required.

A map of the priority routes can be seen on the council website: www.oldham.gov.uk/winter-maintenance

You can join a hand-gritting team by contacting Lisa MacDonald, district manager for Saddleworth & Lees on 0161-770 5195.

If you need extra gritting or your nearest grit bin needs refilling, call 0161-770 4421 or 4423.