GRITTING on West Devon's roads has come under the spotlight in a review just carried out by Devon County Council.

The council last week agreed to improve some of its winter services operations as it prepares for the coming season.

Despite Devon County Council being ranked the best authority in the country for cold weather gritting and snow clearance by the National Highways and Transport Public Satisfaction Survey 2009, the council's cabinet has approved a number of changes to further enhance the service this winter.

Following the last two severe winters, the county has carried out a comprehensive assessment of its response as part of its annual review.

Devon's primary salting network, which treats around 1,700 miles as a precaution when ice, frost or snow is forecast, is now being extended to include main access routes to strategic cottage and community hospitals, and main access routes to secondary schools.

This provides reasonable access to treated roads for 86% of Devon's population, carrying around 70% of the traffic on Devon's roads.

The secondary salting network has also been re-assessed and now includes the main access route to settlements with a population of between 100 and 500, the parking areas of park and ride sites, bus routes with a service interval of 30 minutes or less within any one hour of the day, and main access routes to county council properties providing essential services. The combined primary and secondary salting networks provide reasonable access to treated roads for 96% or Devon residents.

The county council has almost 3,000 grit bins and councillors agreed that instruction labels should be installed on the bins, providing advice to members of the public on how the grit should be used.

Despite a national shortage of salt in the past two winters, Devon County Council did not run out of its stocks.

More than 30,000 tonnes of salt was used in 2009/10 – nearly six times the amount used three winters earlier.

Cllr Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: 'In the last two years we have had two very difficult winters, so I'm very pleased that there has been such a comprehensive review on the winter maintenance service on our highways.

'Our winter service policy has been robust but we can improve upon it with this fine tuning and we will be as prepared as we can be. I'm grateful to the scrutiny task groups for their work on this and also to the highway management officers who have prepared the revised winter maintenance policies.

'During last winter there were a lot of people who were keen to help, but some confusion about how they could get involved, and some unreasonable expectations about what the county council could do by way of providing salt.

'I think it's very sensible if we use the purchasing power of the county council to get a good deal for towns and parishes if they want to have a stock of salt themselves.'

The cabinet also agreed to:

l Publish a self-help leaflet to explain to people what they can do to help themselves in treating their local roads using grit bins

l Town and parish councils will be encouraged to appoint snow wardens to be trained and supported in treating their local roads and footpaths

l Bags of salt will also be made available for town and parish councils to buy

l The terms of the 'resilience network' which would cover around half of the primary salting network as the absolute minimum of roads that should be treated to keep the county moving during a prolonged cold spell

l Discussions will continue with the National Farmers' Union to establish what capability farmers have to support their local communities in extreme weather.

Devon County Council is also holding an "Extreme events" conference in partnership with the Met Office on September 28.