Winter Service Policy September 2021 - April 2026 cumbria.gov.uk Cumbria County Council Winter Service Policy - September 2021-April 2026 Contents Introduction Introduction 3 Cumbria County Council has the fourth largest highway network in England with over 7,900km of carriageway. The county’s highway Network Prioritisation 4 network connects people and places across Cumbria contributing to Treatment Methodology 6 the wellbeing of residents, thriving communities and enabling people to access work, learning and business opportunities to fulfil their Severe weather conditions 8 ambitions. Responsibilities outside of Cumbria County Council 9 The Council’s updated Winter Service Policy sets out how the Council Policy Review 10 as the highways authority for Cumbria will manage the county’s highways during the winter period, to ensure that, as far as is Approach to Communicating with the Public 11 reasonably practicable, the highway network continues to provide for Appendix 1: 12 the safe and reliable passage of users in ice and snow conditions. List of agreed roads in each Local Committee Area As the highway authority, the council is responsible for ensuring that Appendix 2: 34 the highways network is maintained and operational for the safe and Winter Service Location Plan convenient movement of people and goods across the county. It is important to recognise that in discharging its statutory duty, the county Appendix 3: 35 council as highway authority will need to prioritise the availability of List of locations for the treatment of footways resources. Winter service on the adopted highways is undertaken in Appendix 4: 38 accordance with a national code of practice, the “Well-Managed Standards and procedures for Salting and Snow Clearance Highways Infrastructure: A Code of Practice. 2 3 Serving the people of Cumbria Serving the people of Cumbria Cumbria County Council West Cumbria’s Offshore Wind Hub • Serve Hospitals with A&E and the keyfacilities of critical Network prioritisation infrastructure providers, including access routes to all schools. • Lead to strategic and key employment centres, major distribution depots and transport interchanges and important commuter routes. The Council recognises that given the size and resources required to Remaining identified routes • Serve Bus stations and important public transport routes with a deliver winter service in Cumbria, it is not economical or practical to The remaining identified routes are Category 3 and un-classified roads service frequency of at least one bus per ten minutes. treat the whole of the highways network when undertaking ‘planned’ in rural and town centre locations. These routes are treated following a • Serve industrial sites listed under the Control of Major winter activities. longer term forecast in that if the forecast suggests a period of Accident Hazards Regulations and the Radiation (Emergency prolonged bad weather, teams will be deployed prior to the forecasted It is therefore essential that the Council clearly designate a hierarchy Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2001. bad weather to treat the remaining routes during day light hours only, for carriageways that will receive priority treatment during winter. • Serve military establishments. dropping back on the Primary and Secondary routes when required. • Serve single access to villages. The Council recognise that certain routes are more important for road The intention of any planned winter treatment is to act before the • Links to the strategic road network. users and therefore these must be prioritised for treatment. The event takes place building up the resilient salt level on the highway. • Crematoriums. Council aims to keep these roads open and usable as a priority over other parts of the network. The network hierarchy is based on guidance from “Well-Managed Routes in bold are additional winter services from September 2021. Highways Infrastructure: A Code of Practice, October 2016” (the The policy defines the priority road network hierarchy for precautionary Consideration will be given to ‘local or known hazardous locations’ “code”) which defines the considerations to ensure that there is a treatments in descending order of strategic importance. on the road network. We will ensure continuity across authority minimum core highway network that can be kept continuously open, boundaries and interface with other local authority roads as required. This designation is based on three network descriptions: as far as is practicably possible. Primary routes This also applies in extreme weather to protect essential economic These are the primary routes reflect the Resilient Road Network activity and provide access to key services and thereby maximise the (RRN) and includes non-trunk motorways and principal roads. These use of its resources. routes are treated based on forecasted events such as ice, snow or These criteria can be defined as: frost. Generally, the intention is to pre-treat the network before the forecasted weather event actually takes place. In normal circumstances Category 1 - (Primary routes): Non trunk motorways & primary this pre-treatment activity should be completed before the morning route network (Road Resilient Network, RRN). rush commences. Category 2 - (Secondary routes): All remaining principal A class roads. Secondary routes Category 3 (Remaining identified routes): B class roads and Secondary routes are routes which have some strategic importance other roads open to classes of traffic to: but not enough to include them in primary network and in many cases they are also local known problem areas. Similar to Primary routes, • Serve Category One emergency service responders as defined these are treated in the same way but only after the primary routes by the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (iePolice, Fire, Ambulance, have been completed. If the forecast is significant these may be British Transport Police and the Maritime and Coastguard completed at the same time as Primary routes in some areas. Agency). 4 5 Serving the people of Cumbria Serving the people of Cumbria Cumbria County Council Winter Service Policy - September 2021-April 2026 Treatment methodology Secondary routes Secondary routes are additional to primary routes and include other roads to be treated in line with prolonged winter weather. Primary Routes Secondary routes are routes which have some strategic importance but not enough to include them in primary network and in many cases The Council aims to ensure that precautionary salting treatment of the they are also local known problem areas. primary routes is undertaken prior to the formation of ice. Secondary routes will be treated in conjunction with the primary routes The primary routes will be treated either independently or together or immediately after completion of the primary routes dependent upon with secondary routes dependent upon the received forecast. the received forecast and subject to resources being available. Post salting of carriageway will be required when pre salting has not been carried out and ice has formed, or is about to form, on the carriageway. This may arise as a result of the following: Late change in the forecast. Inspections. Monitoring of the ice prediction service. Report from the Police. A specific problem on a non-priority road. The primary network specifically excludes housing estates road and minor roads. Many residential roads do not carry sufficient volumes of traffic to activate salt and can be difficult to access due to parked cars. 6 7 Serving the people of Cumbria Serving the people of Cumbria Cumbria County Council Winter Service Policy - September 2021-April 2026 Remaining identified routes Severe weather conditions Responsibilities outside of The remaining identified routes are roads in rural and town centre locations. These routes are treated following a longer term forecast in Cumbria County Council that if the forecast suggests a period of prolonged bad weather, teams will be deployed prior to the forecasted bad weather to treat the As part of the winter service contingency planning process, ‘Well- remaining routes during day light hours only, dropping back on the Managed Highways Infrastructure: A Code of Practice’, recognises that Primary and Secondary routes when required. during periods of severe weather it is the reasonable for Cumbria Highways England manage and maintains some routes within Cumbria, County Council to define a ‘Minimum Winter Network’. on behalf of the Secretary of State. The intention of any planned winter treatment is to act before the event takes place building up the resilient salt level on the highway. This network has a close relationship to the Resilient Road Network Carlisle Northern Development Route (CNDR) manage and maintain (RRN) and should be classed as the minimum winter road network some routes within Cumbria, on behalf of Cumbria County Council. For the purpose of the remaining network, prolonged winter weather is required during severe weather events, defined in this policy as the defined as: Where roads fall under either Highways England or CNDR control, primary routes. Cumbria County Council has no responsibility for winter service Extended freezing conditions (Road Surface Temperature, RST During and after major snow fall a more intensive response is required provision, however it is essential that continual communication is below 0c for a period exceeding 72 hours). to keep the network clear therefore a risk based approach must be maintained to ensure continuity