Highways workers are gearing up to keep Huddersfield moving in winter.
Kirklees Council's Streetscene teams have been doing “practice runs” in readiness for tackling snow and ice.
And again, they are expecting help from an army of volunteers who worked last year to clear local roads and paths.
Gritters have been out and about on the town’s roads over the past few days to assess the situation.
The drivers of the council’s fleet of 32 gritters have been studying the around the priority network of roads on a dry run to enable them to check equipment, and make sure there are no problems or obstacles along the routes.
The council has also stockpiled 25,000 tonnes of grit in depots across Kirklees.
It believes that is more than enough to cope with yet another harsh winter.
The teams are also filling the almost 1,400 grit bins across Kirklees so that people can help to clear ice and snow in the areas that gritters can't normally reach.
Clr Peter McBride, Kirklees Cabinet member responsible for Streetscene said: “Volunteers were the unsung heroes of last winter.
“They helped the more vulnerable members of the community by clearing areas such as residential homes, community centres and other key community services.
“Local farmers also joined the cause by using grit supplied by the council to grit routes to and from their farms and livestock to make sure milk and meat deliveries could continue, as well as keeping more rural properties accessible.
“These valuable contributions complemented the existing service offered by Streetscene and this teamwork is set to continue this year”.
For real time information on the council's winter maintenance, people can log on to www.kirklees.gov.uk/winter or follow on twitter @kirkleeswinter.
Both of these services will resume at the end of October.
Farmers willing to help in the event of snow disruption are being sought.
Kirklees Council is working with the National Farmers Union to seek farmers with suitable vehicles to help rural communities in heavy snowfall.
A council spokeswoman said: “More than 20 farmers work with the council on this scheme and provide a valuable volunteer service for rural communities.
“Any farmer interested should contact their NFU representative who will pass their details onto us.
“We discuss how this can done and provide grit piles for them to use to help rural communities and farms to enable the delivery and collection of milk etc which can be very difficult in severe winter conditions.”
During the heavy snowfall earlier this year farmers throughout the district volunteered their services.
In Bolster Moor farmers turned out to free drivers trapped in snowdrifts in Slades Road.
Others cleared a bus route above Slaithwaite and made deliveries to rural homes in Holmfirth.
