As winter sets in staff at Swindon Borough Council say they’re ready to keep the streets moving.

A team of eight drivers and eight gritting lorries are on standby and more than 500 tonnes of salt were delivered to Swindon Borough Council’s depot during the summer, taking the road salt stockpile to more than 1,300 tonnes.

The council says that amount is enough to treat Swindon’s priority routes more than 50 times over the next five months if necessary.

Maureen Penny, the council’s cabinet member for transport and the environment, said: “Our gritting team have only just finished their winter training so are as prepared as they can be for any cold weather that might come our way in the months ahead.

“Last year, they did a tremendous job keeping our priority routes clear and we will need them again this winter should the weather take a turn for the worse.

“We have ordered plenty of road salt and have contingencies in place to order more should we need it, although our team’s good planning means we always have plenty in reserve. We also have plans in place to ensure we have staff ready to respond around the clock and keep our vulnerable residents safe in adverse weather.”

Last year, the council treated the priority routes 28 times using approximately 950 tonnes of salt.

The gritting team will be on alert 24 hours a day to grit the priority routes, which cover 208 miles of the borough’s 520-mile road network.