AN army of gritting crews has pledged: We'll keep Kirklees moving!
The announcement came as forecasters warned of more Arctic weather to come early in 2006.
Kirklees Council's gritting and snow clearing crews are gearing up to keep the road clear if the forecasters' predictions of severe weather in January and February prove accurate.
They have already been hard at work this week, with temperatures plunging to as low as -8ºC and snow causing problems across Huddersfield.
Clr Ann Denham, Cabinet member for Environment and Highways, said today: "It has been predicted that we could be in for a `once in 10 years' severe weather and heavy snow.
"This will put extra pressure on our crews to keep the roads clear.
"The advice we have been given is that January and February could see severe cold weather and possibly more prolonged periods of snow than in recent years.
"While we all know how unpredictable the weather can be, we are ready to tackle whatever occurs and do our best to keep the roads open and services running.
"Cold and dry weather is less of a problem than dealing with heavy snowfall. Snow clearing is much more intensive in terms of resources, and causes a bigger challenge in terms of keeping roads open and traffic flowing."
Highways officers are in constant touch with experts monitoring the weather and patrols are on the roads constantly.
Clr Denham added: "Once we get the warning from colleagues at the Met Office of severe frost, priority routes are salted within two hours.
"These are major roads, main bus routes, main roads into housing estates, schools, hospitals, and industrial estates, in total about 60% of the overall road network.
"Similarly, pavements in the two main town centres of Huddersfield and Dewsbury are treated first. Other roads and pavements in towns and village are next in line.
"In terms of snow clearing, again the main roads are the priority before the secondary routes and roads are cleared."
Clr Denham said that if there was heavy snow, particularly on higher ground, one of the main services that could be disrupted would be refuse collection.
"The highways service and the refuse crews liaise very closely in periods of bad weather to see there is co-ordination wherever possible to ensure that there is minimum disruption to bin collections.
"Despite what people may think the refuse collection vehicles, although very heavy, do not perform well on icy roads.
"If the weather is severe they can also add to traffic congestion problems.
"What we aim to do if the bin collections are hit is to ensure that residents are kept informed as best as we can as to any changes to bin collection arrangements, and that we will do our best to keep that information up to date and consistent."
