Winter Service Policy

The total length of Buckinghamshire’s road network is 3,200km.

However, not all of it will be treated with salt during the winter season as limited resources available to the council focus the service on priority routes that are required to keep general traffic in the county moving. These routes are sub-divided into primary and secondary routes for the purposes of prioritising precautionary salting.

These routes may be subject to minor alterations in year as required to accommodate changes and events that may occur on the network. Buckinghamshire Council also maintains a network of salt bins for use on the public highway. These bins are restocked prior to and during the winter season as required.

Primary precautionary salting routes are the most important routes required to keep everyone moving. They consist of approximately 1400km of the county's busiest classified roads, approximately 44% of the total network.

Secondary salting routes are the next most important routes and typically include:

• classified roads that are not included in the primary salting routes
• unclassified roads serving communities of 200 dwellings or more
• unclassified roads with a gradient of 10% or more