In the event of severe cold weather, icy conditions and/or heavy snow which cause disruption to bin collections, street cleansing and other services, we will update you with further information.

We run a winter gritting service to keep the borough's pavements and roads in a safe condition in snowy and icy conditions. There are also 159 bins across the borough which we fill with salt so you can help yourself.

Winter service plan

The winter service plan sets out the actions we take during severe winter weather.

View the winter service plan and salting maps

Salting the roads

Treatments we use are:

• pre-salting - rock salt is used on the roads to prevent ice from forming during frosty conditions
• post-salting - rock salt is used to melt ice and snow that has already formed
• snow removal.

On council estates we try to grit or clear slopes and stairways in communal areas where possible.

Priorities for gritting

During bad weather we have to prioritise:

• main roads
• public transport routes
• hospital access routes
• busy hills.

When roads are icy or when snow is slow to thaw, we appreciate that the demand for salting roads not on our precautionary salting routes will increase. However, because we have a limited number of gritters and drivers, we will not divert them off their priority routes. To do so would result in those priority routes not receiving the amount of salt needed to stop ice forming. That would risk parts of the main road network quickly becoming impassable.

Transport for London (TfL) roads

For information about roads maintained by TfL, please contact TfL Street Management directly.