Gritters costing £2.3m announced amid sunny weather

Many minds in Somerset might be on the sunshine and beach - but the council has announced up to £2.3m will be spent 14 new gritter lorries.

Somerset Council currently has a fleet of 23 gritters, which are used primarily in winter to spread salt and grit on roads to melt snow and ice.

Two new gritters entered service last winter, which were named Basil Salty and Gritney Spears by local schools South Somerset Partnership School and Bucklers Mead Academy in Yeovil.

Ten of the existing vehicles are reaching the end of their active service life, with much of the fleet suffering "significant deterioration" and costing the council increasing amounts of ongoing maintenance.

Jeremy Fry, the council's infrastructure and transport officer for highways operations, explained in his written report: "These assets suffer significant deterioration due to excessive abrasive corrosion resulting from the salting operations.

"The oldest gritters in our fleet are now experiencing significant maintenance and repair attention, and next year these will be subjected to higher maintenance rates.

"Furthermore, the risk to service delivery due to ageing of the fleet is a significant concern due to time off road for repairs and maintenance."

The council currently spends around £200,000 on servicing and maintaining its fleet of winter service vehicles, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Up to £2.3m has been committed to purchasing the new vehicles over the next four years as part of the council's capital programme.

The council has entered a contract with Romaquip to buy the vehicles, which includes an option to buy an additional five vehicles in the third year of the agreement, though this will require additional funding.

Mr Fry said it was not possible to simply hire in vehicles on an annual basis, stating this would put additional pressure on the council's revenue budget.

It would cost the council more than £218,000 to hire out seven vehicles over the coming winter to cover for getting vehicles which are unusable or undergoing maintenance.

The council has not indicated how soon the new vehicles will enter service.

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