West Lothian Council delivers

Gritting and Winter Maintenance

 

Winter Information

• Click here for some 'Ready Winter' information (new window)
• Click here to view the Live-Eye Traffic Camera of the roads in your area (new window)
• Click here for information for Driving in Bad Weather
• Click here to view our Winter Services Leaflet

You can view the gritting route for your locality in the downloadable documents section below

How we deal with Roads and Footways in West Lothian 

Every winter West Lothian Council has to treat 950 km of roads and around 1000 km of footways to combat the effects of bad weather. The normal period of operation extends from 31st October - 1st April.

It is important to appreciate that it is not possible to treat all routes simultaneously. In this view, the council must adopt a priority system to ensure that the treatment is targeted to areas of greatest need first.

Where possible, we aim to treat, with grit, major roads and important bus routes prior to the formation of ice. We operate this service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week when necessary. Once these primary routes have been treated, we treat secondary routes such as those in housing estates and rural areas.
We also deal with footways on a priority basis. In ice and snow conditions footways leading to schools, hospitals, health centres, shopping areas and where there is heavy pedestrian movement are treated first. Main routes to residential areas follow, with internal footways in housing areas being treated as resources permit.

In addition we provide over 2000 grit bins, which are positioned throughout West Lothian for use by members of the public.

Grit Bin Policy

• Only provided on sities with difficult conditions ie steep hills or sharp bends.
• Bins will only be located where they can be filled from a lorry.
• Only replenished during and immediately after, periods of adverse weather or upon request from the public as resources allow.
• No provision in private areas or car parks for internal use by either Council or any other public or private property such as schools, parks, hospitals, old peoples homes, lunch clubs etc unless a service level agreement is in place.
• Bins will not be designated to serve a carriageway if that carriageway is designated as a primary route.
• Bins will not be designated to serve a footway if that footway is designated as a primary route.
• Enquiries will be assessed and if successful, applicants will receive an application form to complete
• A request will not be accepted unless a location to site the bin has been agreed. Therefore, even if the criterion for locating a bin is met, none will be provided if residents cannot agree a position.
• The position of any proposed bin should not obstruct passage of pedestrians.
• Grit bins will be left in situ during the summer months unless the responsible officer confirms that they are causing a public nuisance.
• West Lothian Council grit bins are either yellow or beige in colour, each is tagged with a unique identification number on a brass tag located on the side of each bin. Their location is recorded in our Roads Operations Database.

Service Standards - We will:

• Publish our winter maintenance policy, including treatment priorities and level of service, each year prior to the start of winter maintenance operations (details of our winter maintenance policy are provided in a guidance note);
• Carry out gritting and snow clearing operations on public roads and footpaths in accordance with published policy;
• Provide new grit bins in streets which meet the required criteria; and
• Fill grit bins on receipt of a request as resources allow, or following periods of severe weather.

Contact Details
For - policy on route priorities; requests for new grit bin or refills; general information/comments on service provision - 01506 775000 (24 hour contact number)

Updated 05/12/12