Winter Gritting Routes & Salt Bins

Winter Gritting 

The Council’s priority during snow conditions is to keep the main routes open and clear for motorists.  48% of the roads in the area are pre-salted as part of the winter maintenance programme. 

This includes:

  • All A and B roads
  • Local high risk sites and important access routes (e.g. bus routes, near schools, routes to emergency services sites). 

The gritting and snow ploughing routes, and locations of grit bins are available on as documents below. 

PLEASE NOTE: To report an incident on the Heads of The Valleys, please contact The South Wales Trunk Road Agency on 0300 1231213. Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council hold no responsibility for the gritting of this road.  

What we can do 

We provide grit bins and salt for residents and local businesses to use on public roads and footpaths that are not on the ‘gritting routes’.

Where possible, we try to help out with emergencies, for example making sure residents can get to urgent hospital appointments (such as dialysis and oncology).

We also move staff onto snow clearance duties to help clear snow in town centres and cemeteries, and improve access to care homes.

During disruptive snow conditions, local people will be able to access information on services and school closures through the Blaenau Gwent website. 

What we can’t do 

Sometimes, despite our best efforts to keep main routes clear, it is impossible to keep these roads ‘snow free’ while it is snowing. 

We are unable to salt and clear all of our roads due to time and therefore the priority is to keep open the main routes. 

We do not treat footpaths, except in very severe snow conditions, where we will help clear footpaths in shopping centres. 

How you can help 

We encourage residents and local businesses to use the salt available in the grit bins for use on public footpaths and roads to prevent icing. The locations of the grit bins are available in the documents list  below.

There's no law stopping you from clearing snow and ice on the pavement outside your home or from public spaces. It's unlikely you'll be sued or held legally responsible for any injuries on the path if you have cleared it carefully. For further guidance about this, visit www.gov.uk    

Grit Bins 

A list of existing Grit Bin locations throughout Blaenau Gwent can be found in the related documents section below. 

Related Documents

Contact Information

Name of Team: Winter Maintenance

Telephone No: 01495 311556

Email: info@blaenau-gwent.gov.uk