Renfrewshire Council

We want to make sure everyone is #RenReady this winter.

As a council, we are prepared to deal with winter weather conditions in advance, during and after to ensure that we keep you safe and moving throughout the winter period.

You can also ensure you are prepared to deal with adverse weather by taking steps to plan in advance.

What are we doing to prepare?
Grit bins
Gritting of roads
Gritters
Preparing yourself against illness
Supporting your neighbours and community
Clearing paths and driveways
Winter Maintenance Plan 2022-2027

What are we doing to prepare? 

Gritting teams in Renfrewshire are ready to deal with the any cold snap that occurs over the winter period.

Nine gritting machines will cover more than 850km of roads across Renfrewshire, with more than 3700 tonnes of grit ready to keep Renfrewshire moving throughout the winter period.

Our teams monitor the weather on a 24/7 basis and go out during the day when required ahead of the temperature dropping, and then throughout the night to keep our roads as free of snow and ice as possible.

Grit bins

To support you, we do our best to ensure that all our 540 grit bins are available for you to use on your paths and in your neighbourhoods.

Here's a map of where they are located.

We also have a number of larger community grit bins too:

• Bishopton - Community Centre Car Park.
• Bridge of Weir - Livery Walk Car Park
• Brookfield - Albert Drive
• Crosslee - Car park at Crosslee shops.
• Elderslie - Car Park at Village Hall
• Erskine - Household Waste Recycling Centre, Barrhill Road 
• Erskine - Car Park to the rear of the Library
• Houston - Carrick Centre Car Park
• Howwood - Village Hall Car Park
• Inchinnan - Playing Fields Car Park opposite the Primary School
• Johnstone - Household Waste Recycling Centre, Miller Street
• Johnstone - Car Park of Floor Street Industrial Estate
• Kilbarchan - Adjacent to clock tower at Steeple Hall on Steeple Street
• Langbank - Footpath adjacent to tennis courts
• Linwood - Household Waste Recycling Centre, Middleton Road, Linwood.
• Lochwinnoch - McKillop Centre Car Park
• Paisley - Household Waste Recycling Centre, Underwood Road
• Paisley - Glenburn Community Centre Car Park
• Renfrew - Household Waste Recycling Centre, Haining Road
• Renfrew - Car Park of Kirklandneuk Community Centre

Any restocking requests should be sent to us via MyAccount.

Gritting of roads

We are responsible for maintaining the public road network in Renfrewshire, with the exception of the motorways and trunk roads (M8, A8 at Langbank, A737 and Erskine Bridge) which are the responsibility of Transport Scotland.

As part of our maintenance duties, we provide 24 hour cover to respond to snow and ice using a fleet of specialist gritting vehicles that spread rock salt on the roads to prevent ice forming, or use ploughs to remove snow during heavy periods of snowfall.

Like all councils, we must attend to our high priority routes first and ensure they are kept clear of snow and ice, before moving onto the lower priority routes as resources, time and circumstances allow.

Our order of priority is as follows:

1. 'A' class roads and main radial routes within Renfrewshire.
2. 'B' class roads and main distributor and main bus routes including, where appropriate, access routes to hospitals, ambulance depots, main police stations, fire stations and schools.
3. Local distributor roads including those serving industrial estates, isolated communities or dependent establishments.
4. Local access roads within communities and local rural roads.
5. Prospective public roads.
6. Private roads

You can see a map of our gritting routes online.

Gritters

Thank you to all our staff who work day and night to keep Renfrewshire moving.

You can look out for our gritting machines on the road, including, Ploughlo Grittini, Thawin' Batty, Tony Gritzpatrick, William Wall-ice, Gerry Raffersleigh, Fridge of Weir, Gleniffer Brrraes, Buddie Baltic and Paisleigh.

Prepare yourself against illness

• If you're eligible, get your winter vaccinations
• Keep supplies of cold/flu medicine at home
• Wear warm clothing in cold temperatures, especially a hat when outside as your head is where most of your body heat escapes from

If you feel unwell, you can get help and advice from:

• a pharmacy - pharmacists can give treatment advice for a range of minor illnesses and can tell you if you need to see a doctor
• your GP - you may be able to speak to a GP online or over the phone, or go in for an appointment if they think you need to
• NHS 111 - go to 111.nhs.uk or call 111 if you have an urgent medical problem and you're not sure what to do

The sooner you get advice, the sooner you are likely to get better.

For more information on staying healthy in the winter months, visit NHS Inform. 

Supporting your neighbours and community

• Check on elderly friends, neighbours and relatives regularly.
• Ask if you can help in any way, for example, with food shopping.]
• Make sure others are warm enough, especially at night
• have stocks of food and medicines so they do not need to go out during very cold weather

If you're worried about a relative or elderly neighbour, contact us on 0300 300 0300 or call the Age UK helpline on 0800 678 1602 (8am to 7pm every day).

If you're concerned the person may have hypothermia, contact NHS 111.

For more tips on preparing and coping in the winter months, visit the Ready Scotland website.

Clearing paths and driveways

Being a good neighbour and clearing paths of ice and snow is the kind of practical step that most of us can take during cold weather. In fact, a helping hand can make all the difference for people who may be unable to clear their own paths, or who need to use local paths to access services.

You can borrow a grit spreader, snow shovel and grit from our Team Up to Clean Up community caddies.

Here's some tips to keep where you live free of snow and ice:

• It's much easier to clear fresh snow, so make a start if you can before people squash it down.
• Don't use hot water. This will melt the snow, but may well replace it with black ice, increasing the risk of injury.
• Choose suitable clothing for the task, for example, footwear that provides a good grip.
• Don't take unnecessary risks on the road. Traffic will find it difficult to stop quickly in icy conditions. When clearing ice and snow, wear visible clothing which helps traffic to see you.
• If shovelling snow, think about where you're going to put it, so that you don't block people's paths or simply shift the problem elsewhere. Make sure it will not cause problems when it melts. Piling snow over gullies or drains may stop melting snow from draining away and cause it to refreeze.
• Clear a small path down the middle of the area to be cleared first, so that you have a safe surface to walk on. You can then shovel from the centre to the sides.
• Spread some grit on the area you have cleared to prevent ice forming. If necessary, ordinary table salt or dishwasher salt will work, but avoid spreading on plants or grass. Don't use too much;a tablespoon for each square metre cleared will be enough. It will take a little while to work.
• If there is no salt available, then a little sand or ash can be used - it will not have the same de-icing properties but should offer more grip under foot.
• Use the sun to your advantage. Removing the top layer of snow will allow the sun to melt any ice beneath; but you will need to cover any ice with salt to stop refreezing overnight.
• Salt can be washed away by further snowfalls or rain and then refreeze, leaving black ice. If this happens, more salt should be used soon after the rain has stopped and before temperatures reach freezing. Particular care and attention should be given to steps and steep slopes - additional salt could be used in these areas to reduce the risk of slipping.
• Try to sweep up any excess grit, sand or other substances used come the thaw - to prevent these from blocking drains.

There is no law that would stop you from clearing snow and ice on the pavement outside or on paths to your house (or any other building you are responsible for). Provided you are careful, use common sense and don't do anything which would be likely to cause harm or distress to others, it's highly unlikely that you'll be found responsible for any accidents. In fact, people using areas affected by snow and ice have a responsibility to be careful themselves.

Winter Maintenance Plan 2022-2027

Our Winter Maintenance Plan sets out our statutory requirements and the operational responsibilities we need to carry out to prevent snow and ice forming on public roads as we aim to protect pedestrians and road users.

This applies to all adopted carriageways, footpaths and pedestrian areas that the Council is responsible for, although treatment is carried out on a risk-based approach that means not every section of road or footway will be treated during adverse weather.

Our teams monitor the weather on a 24/7 basis from October to April to ensure that we can clear and treat our roads network in advance of freezing temperatures and this is carried out on a priority basis, which is:

• Primary routes - main distributor roads and access to hospitals, schools and for the emergency services
• Secondary routes - Local distributor roads into industrial estates and local access roads in communities
  • This will take place after primary routes have been serviced during periods of exceptionally poor weather and prolonged periods of freezing temperatures

The footpath network focuses on the following priorities:

• Paisley, Johnstone and Renfrew town centres
• Routes serving the hospital and health centres
• Access to schools and community centres
• Other high pedestrian usage areas, such as sports centres

For a copy of the plan, please email the team.