The Lewisham Councillor responsible for keeping you moving on snowy and icy days is the Deputy Mayor, Heidi Alexander. Here she outlines how it’s done.
"Looking out of the window on a snowy morning the thrill of the ‘winter wonderland’ view can be quickly replaced by the dread of ‘how am I going to get anywhere today?
“Lewisham Council has several tactics up its sleeve that help to keep you moving and hopefully you felt the effects this morning, with no major traffic problems reported in the borough.
“Firstly, we make sure we’re up to speed with the weather forecast, regularly checking the latest updates.
“To ensure we’re prepared, there is a large salt store within the borough, along with four 10-ton lorries with GPS tracking devices on standby and five experienced winter maintenance officers take it in turns to be responsible for deciding how much grit to use and where.
“For the snow overnight on 7/8 Feb, main roads in the borough were gritted several times over 24 hours. We also had a crew carrying out spot gritting during the day. Once the worst was over, the situation continued to be monitored.
“We are satisfied with the gritting works carried out and hope people were happy with our efforts but if there are any problems please call our call centre on 020 8314 7171 or alternatively the Highways Group on 020 8314 2181.”