Why in the last few days around here (Beds) have the gritters been out and laid what looks like a version of the bonneville salt flats when its only been mildley chilly, yet last night when it actually froze nothing,nada, fugg all to be seen ? is it only out here in the sticks this happens or elsewhere…discuss 
There is little point gritting the road once it has frozen. You have to put it down before you get freezing weather so you get a nice coating of damp salty water across the road so it doesn’t freeze. 
Also makes it slippery for things on two wheels. 
Its the same here, the roads are only gritted when its not cold enough for frost for some unknown reason.
it was definately frozen in north london today…
councils are advised by highways agency when they think the weather is going to freeze, and in order not to get caught out they put the salt on the roads the day before a suspected frost. grit is no good after the event. weather prediction is hit and miss at best, so sometimes they will get it wrong its par for the course. just be grateful its done in the first place. normally it does work.
As Grim Reaper stated the councils get a frost warning and as a precaution they go out gritting I know this to be true because i work for a contractor that grits for the council
And then there is straight forward stupidity.
My local council (Bromley) have just gritted/salted for the third night running.
Has it rained to wash the stuff off the road? No. So we now have a nice thick layer of corrosive salt, gutters full of grit, more street trees being poisoned and have spend pounds lots on this futile exercise tonight.
Pointless after the event babe!
Oi witch sign in with your OWN name and not pauls…people will talk 
And then there is straight forward stupidity.
My local council (Bromley) have just gritted/salted for the third night running.
Has it rained to wash the stuff off the road? No. So we now have a nice thick layer of corrosive salt, gutters full of grit, more street trees being poisoned and have spend pounds lots on this futile exercise tonight.
Oldguy
hey buddy you got to emember that everything comes from a weather report and you have been alive now enough to know that these reports are as reliable as chocolate fireguards. when the reports are right then great, but when they are wrong its a pain. but ask yourself would you rather they didnt do it?
+1 better done than not done
Come now, let’s get a grip and think about this.
I’m all for gritting when the prediction is that the roads need gritting. But salt doesn’t vanish overnight unless it p*sses with rain or you get snow and a lot of melt water.
You don’t need to do it three nights running if all you have is a bit of a frost. The stuff is still there the next night and the night after. To do it is just a mindless, knee jerk waste of money.
Ok oldguy its like this… When the council gets the report from the highways agency they put a plan into place, that plan is dependant on the salt that the said council has in storage at that time. First they do the A roads, then the B roads, they then depending on how easy it is for them to get more salt may do some of the smaller roads. If the time of year suggests that there may be more bad weather warnings, they will forsake the smaller roads and concentrate on the main routes.
If the highways agency think that there is going to be major trouble then they will advise all councils to blanket all major routes for a period of time so as to hedge their bets. This is so that they dont get caught out like they did in london a few years ago when a flash snowfall caused major upheaval.
If they didnt do it and your council got caught out then the council would be held liable, and whatever contractor working the roads at that time would face massive, and I mean massive fines.
So it is cheaper to blanket salt the roads and if they get it wrong just blame bad weather forecasting, because we already know its hit and miss. A ready made excuse if you like.
O.K. I work for a local authority and know how the system works.
My point is that if you only get a frost one night, the salt you put down then is still there the next night, so go salt the roads you didn’t do last night.
It’s not bl**dy rocket science, just simple physics and a little bit a chemistry.
if the country was run by a normal housewife with 3 kids then it would be that simple, but unfortunately it isnt so guess what? f**k ups aplenty along with inexplicable decisions. we all know how the country runs.
An interesting read, as I sit here wondering whether to anti ice my patch tonight. The initial forecast until 30 mins ago said we’d have + C temps all night with surface temps a couple of degrees above that, with just a little light mist to moisten the air. Dewpoint doesn’t cross all night, so I’m thinking not… but I speak to our forecaster to get a bit more detail and he updates his forecast. Now I’m looking at - C temps for air and surface with the LOW possibility of rain / sleet / snow between 0600 and 0900. Dewpoint now meets between 0400 and 0500.
So what do I do? To anti ice, or not to anti ice… £50k is a lot of dosh to spend on someones guess work!