Uppermill Cubs meet the Snow Ploughs and Gritters

Reporter and Assistant Cub Leader : Judith Grinter

Last night, 17 Cub Scouts from 20th Oldham Scout Group, Uppermill,  had the chance to meet with operational managers of Oldham’s Highways Department and find out about the gritting process and see for themselves how the team keep the roads in the borough safe and the traffic moving during bad weather.

Head of Operational Services Craig Dale welcomed the Cubs, parents and Scout Leaders to their Headquarters on Moorhey Street in Oldham. A half hour presentation opened the Cubs eyes to the work that the Gritters and Snow ploughs do on the roads, often never seen by the children who are usually tucked up in bed at night during the winter months, whilst the fleet drives the streets.

Craig told the Cubs : ” We are operational 24 hrs a day and 7 days a week. We grit the roads as it is our statuary duty. The Gritters have been given recognisable names, chosen by school children, to make identifying them easier for the public. We can store 6,500 tonnes of grit at our depot although we have much less than that at the moment after the recent snow fall. The grit is mined from a hole in the ground in Winsford, and it’s older than the dinosaurs. The grit is ground up and contains salt and fossilised sea creatures. We use quite course grit in the Saddleworth area as this works best in such wet and snowy conditions.

“The grit in itself doesn’t melt snow. The grit needs to mix with the snow, which then raises the snow’s melting point.  Sometimes snow can fall faster than the snow and grit can mix so it then accumulates on the roads and makes them hazardous as has happened during the recent Storm Emma.

“Each night when the Gritter lorries go out, they spread the weight of 5 African Elephants. this winter the Gritters have travelled the equivalent distance of 4 times around the world. When we’re not gritting the roads we’re attending to many jobs in the Highway which includes filling the 637 grit bins in the borough. ”

The Cubs were then treated to ‘meeting’ lorries Winston Church-hill, Basil Salty and Nicole Saltslinger and seeing the huge pile of grit that still remains even after the recent bad weather. At the beginning of last week the pile was at least 4 times the size it was last night. The rest of the Gritters in the fleet, that park and refill at the depot between journeys, were still travelling around Oldham finishing gritting their routes. Last night air temperatures were higher than they have been for a while but the technology that the department uses showed the team that the road surfaces were still below freezing point and so gritting was essential.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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