Grit Astley and co tune up for winter road maintenance programme

From now until April 2025, the team is on 24/7 standby to treat seven key routes across more than 178 miles of local road network, acting on information from the borough's two recently upgraded weather stations.

Last year alone, the council completed 41 gritting runs, using 1957 tonnes of rock salt, covering 7,298 miles of road - roughly the same distance as travelling to Indonesia from St Helens.

This comes on the back of a £375,000 investment  from the council's capital budget - money ringfenced for transport upgrades - for three new GPS-fitted gritting vehicles which, following a public competition, have been named Sleetwood Mac; Grit Astley (never gonna slip you up) and Jonny Snowmax in honour of St Helens R.F.C. captain, Jonny Lomax - all of which are sure to get plenty of run outs over the coming months.

Paul Lawrenson, St Helens Borough Council's Assistant Director for Highways and Infrastructure, said: "With a replacement value of almost £2bn, our highway infrastructure network is by far the most valuable asset that the council has responsibility for which we're determined to keep accessible and in the best possible condition with the budget available to us.

"This is evident through our recent investment over the past 12-months which has seen money wisely spent to modernise our fleet and upgrade our weather stations, making our winter road maintenance service more resilient than ever before."

For more information on the winter maintenance programme, including a list of roads that are gritted in your area and where you can find your nearest grit bin, visit: www.sthelens.gov.uk/gritting

ENDS