Winter service

Follow Essex Highways for the latest updates

Our winter service will resume on 21 October 2024. During the season, we treat over 2000 miles of roads in Essex, which is about 40% of our road network. These are the most important routes to keep moving. We operate 49 gritting lorries with ploughs plus 2 mini gritters with around 104 drivers who are deployed based on weather conditions.

For further guidance in case of severe weather conditions (school closures and other council services), see the main Essex County Council pages.

Severe weather warnings for East of England are available from The Met Office.

Winter decision making

Our decision makers get a report from our forecasters daily. This shows them minimum temperatures along with any hazards expected (frost, black ice, snow etc). From this they can make an informed decision whether to grit the County’s roads and the best time to do this. Roads are gritted before frost forms.

When they have made the decision, usually at lunchtime, they communicate this via our @essexhighways Twitter account using the hashtag #EssexGritters.