Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether new guidance has been issued to local councils on establishing priority for winter gritting since winter 2020-21.

Under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 local highway authorities, such as Cheshire East Council, have a duty to maintain the highways network in their area. This duty includes the requirement “to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow or ice”.

Whilst Government has no powers to intervene in these matters in relation to local authority roads and winter service planning and the treatment of roads for which they are responsible, the Department works with the UK Roads Liaison Group to provide guidance to local highway authorities on a range of issues. In June 2020, the UKRLG’s National Winter Service Group published Planning for Winter Service.

This autumn, Ministers will be writing to the leaders of all local highway authorities in England, outside London, reminding them of their responsibilities with regard to winter planning and the measures they expect them to take to ensure they can provide a safe highway network during the 2021-22 winter season.