Winter services - roads

Each winter, from November until the end of April, we use forecasts of frost, ice and snow conditions to decide when to grit roads and pavements.

We receive daily forecasts from the Meteorological Office telling us the expected weather conditions for the next 24 hours, and a prediction for the following five days. A road sensor and weather station located in the north of the city also supplies us with real time information about the temperature and condition of roads.

Our decision whether or not to grit is based on this combined information.

We generally grit overnight and aim to complete the work by 7.30am.

What you can do

You can help clear public areas such as roads or pavements, get together with others in your area or street to share the work.

Volunteering makes a real difference in the community, if you would like to register to be a community volunteer please contact your Ward Co-ordinator.

What we can do

When we decide to grit we advise councillors, schools, hospitals and the emergency services.

• Roads - we regularly grit about 570km (almost half) of Manchester's roads: we include the main A and B roads, bus routes, busy commuter routes and other busy roads serving hospitals, schools, the airport, large employment and industrial centre's and some local access roads; and
• Pavements and cycle paths - we also grit over 50km of pavements and cycle paths, including busy pedestrian areas in the city centre, district shopping centres and other pavements linking transport interchanges etc. Please note - pavements are only gritted when the forecast is for prolonged periods of ice or snow.

View the roads, pavements and cycle paths we grit.

Follow us on twitter using the gritter twitter feed @MCCGritters1 which will let you know when we are gritting. If who don't use twitter the tweets will be automatically uploaded within the winter service information page.

What we don't do

We do not grit on private land, this is the owners responsibility.