Gritter operative clearing roads in Diggle {Photo: Stuart Coleman©2015)
Primary school children have shown true grit and come up with some imaginative names for Oldham Council’s fleet of gritters.
Late last year we launched a competition asking young people to come up with a first name for each one of the eight vehicles which have recently been in use 24-hours a day keeping our roads free of snow and ice.
We received hundreds of entries – some from outside the borough – and after careful consideration the best eight were chosen.
Each gritter has now been branded with its new name on the front of the cab – and now you’ll be able to look out for the vehicles as they travel around spreading grit and salt if we get a repeat of the recent wintery weather.
The winning entries were: Freddie Salted – Joshua Thompson, aged eight, from Mills Hill Primary School, Chadderton; Grittersaurus – Nathan Peter Smith, aged four, from St Mary’s RC Primary School; Goliath – Ellie Ward, aged 10, from Yewtree Community School; Walter the Salter – Imogen Summer, aged five, of Norden Primary School; Gritterbug and Gritney Spears – Leighton Sessman, aged seven, from Royton Hall; Gritanator – Callum Sessman, aged five, from Royton Hall; Thor – Joseph Gledhill, aged seven of Whitegate End
Councillor Dave Hibbert, Oldham Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Planning and Highways, said: “We’ve had a great response to this competition and although it was a bit of fun it also helps to teach our youngsters about road safety and how we keep our roads safe in cold weather.
“Over the last few weeks the council’s fleet of gritters and their drivers have played a vital role in helping to keep the borough moving. In just seven days we gritted more than 10,000 miles of carriageway. To put that into perspective that’s the distance from Oldham to Adelaide, so it’s fair to say our staff have been busy and they deserve a pat on the back for the work they’ve done. As far as reasonably possible, we will keep the primary highway network free of ice and snow at all times in order to help ensure a safe journey for commuters and residents.”
Resources are initially directed to gritting seven priority routes, including the trans-Pennine roads and most of the principal, classified and major bus routes.
To keep residents fully informed of any developments the Oldham Council website – http://www.oldham.gov.uk/winter – will be updated continually and feature the latest news on school closures, gritting routes, locations of grit bins and grit sales.
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