Winter gritting service

In order to create a safe environment for our residents, businesses, and visitors, we have the following equipment to combat the slippery roads caused by ice, frost, or snow:

• 7 gritting vehicles to spread salt on the roads
• nearly 200 salt bins strategically located on the street that sweepers use to grit pavements
• a store of 1500 tonnes of salt in reserve

Not everywhere can be treated immediately at the same time, so we plan for high priority areas first such as:

• steep gradients
• bus routes
• areas outside transport hubs
• outside fire and police stations
• hospitals 
• schools 
• nursing homes. 

Check our snow priorities map to see when your street might be gritted. 

Document

Snow priorities map PDF, 4.7 MB, 1 page

Pavements

Our busiest pavements are gritted using small vehicles, whilst our street sweepers manually grit over 500 pavement locations across the city, such as pedestrian crossing points and subway steps. 

Roads

Depending on the information we receive in specialised road weather forecasts, we issue a different level of response to create a safe environment.

Some roads within Westminster are gritted by Transport for London. 

Westminster Housing

Our Housing Services Team are prepared for bad weather through regular monitoring of weather forecasts to ensure that they are proactive with gritting estates and street properties.  

Grit is stored up in advance in various locations across estates, to be used as and when required, 

The most vulnerable residents are prioritised, as the first areas to be gritted are sheltered housing schemes, housing block entrance ways or paths, and service roads. These are followed by hard surfaced areas. 

In extreme conditions, many of these areas will be gritted twice daily to ensure they are safe for our housing residents and that services remain uninterrupted.