Gritting snow and ice

Harrow provides a gritting service to keep our roads flowing during periods of snow and ice. It is not possible to grit all the roads during the small window of opportunity, and the available resources.

Finding out if your road is on a gritting route

To find out which roads in Harrow are on the gritting route view our gritting route list.

Tips on clearing snow and ice

For tips on clearing snow and ice from paved areas visit: Met Office heavy snow and icy roads webpage.

What are standard gritting routes?

Standard gritting routes are the roads where the Council determines that:

• The road surface temperature is likely to be below zero celsius
• There is a likelihood of frost or ice forming on the surface

What are severe gritting routes?

These are the routes where we anticipate snow conditions following Met Office advice.

These routes:

• Cover all of the standard routes
• Cover specific roads that are known to be an issue in snow conditions.

Gritting salt

The salt from grit bins is for the public streets and must not be used on private property.

We do not sell gritting salt to residents as our supply is stored in bulk and not in bags. Our gritting salt is stored in a working depot with lots of moving vehicles and machinery. It is not safe to allow residents to visit to purchase the gritting salt. Salt can be purchased at a variety of DIY stores or builders merchants.

How many gritting routes are there?

The borough is split into four gritting routes. When we receive a severe weather warning we immediately dispatch our gritting trucks across the borough. All designated gritting routes are completed in under four hours.

Do we grit drive-ways of the elderly residents?

Whilst we sympathise with the concerns of elderly residents, we do not sweep any private driveways. Our resources are directed to the public roads and areas of high footfall, such as supermarkets.

For advice on keeping warm and safe during the cold weather, please visit the Age UK website.