§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what guidelines his Department has issued for the gritting of roads in icy conditions. [105056]
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§ Mr. Hill[holding answer 17 January 2000]: The Highways Agency aims to provide a winter maintenance service of de-icing and snow clearing which, as far as possible, allows the safe movement of traffic on motorways and all purpose trunk roads in England, and keeps delays and accidents caused by adverse weather to a minimum. Their maintenance agents undertake the operational management of this service following the guidelines in the Highways Agency Trunk Road Maintenance Manual: Volume 2, Routine and Winter Maintenance Code.
For local authority roads, the Code of Good Practice for Highway Maintenance produced by the local government associations in England and Scotland in 1989 provides advice on systems to predict freezing conditions at Appendix 4.7. A partnership project between DETR, the Local Government Association, the Welsh Assembly, and DOE(NI) is currently considering the revision of this code.