The winter months allow our maintenance teams the opportunity to get on top of pruning and planting works across our sites whilst also bringing into action our winter gritting teams. When the cold weather arrives, our focus turns to keeping the sites and users safe. Our winter maintenance programmes give full peace of mind and assurance throughout even the most treacherous periods of weather. With forecasts monitored from the start of October up until the end of March, our teams are primed and ready to jump into action as soon as forecasts indicate the first cold night!
We are out gritting throughout the nights and early mornings to ensure that a good bed of salt is down prior to the start of the day. The process of salt melting ice is not instant and it takes time for the salt to work its way to the bottom of the ice or snow to melt it. Vehicular traffic helps activate the salt by bedding it in to the bottom of the ice and snow. Once the salt is down in contact with ice or snow, the melting process begins, with the ice turning into a brine spreading outwards from the source of the salt and working under any ice that has formed. This causes any remaining ice and snow to float on top of the brine, meaning it is easier for traffic to break down remaining ice into slush. If you see slushing occurring then you know that the salt is taking effect!
Whilst our gritting teams primary concern is ensuring the sites are covered with sufficient salt, we operate with the condition of the landscaping in mind. It is not well known that salt can cause significant damage to shrubs and grass by removing water from the stock, causing it to fail. We spread salt at an industry standard of 25g per m2 to ensure full coverage but operate with care that salt is not being cast into shrub beds and verges, reducing the volume of stock that fails over winter months.
Whiting are available 24/7 throughout the course of the winter to cover any sites nationwide, regardless of size or location.