Written - Winter maintenance of the road network in Wales

A number of colleagues have been contacting me this week concerning the arrangements and responsibilities for salting and salt stock provision during periods of winter weather.

Our responsibility, as a Government is in respect of the winter maintenance of Trunk Roads in Wales as shown on the attached plan. The remainder of the road network in Wales is the responsibility of individual local authorities.

 We, as a Government discharge our responsibilities in two ways. Firstly, we deliver directly all winter maintenance and salt spreading on the M4 and M48 motorways in South Wales maintaining our own supplies of salt, in depots along the M4.  For other Trunk Roads in Wales, we contract out winter maintenance to local highway authorities, who then procure and spread salt on our behalf.  Local authorities make their own arrangements to procure sufficient salt stocks to cover the spreading requirements for their own highway networks.

Following similar problems with the weather last year, we encouraged local authorities to increase their salt stocks and put in place mutual aid arrangements.  Many did indeed purchase additional salt stocks and put in place such arrangements.  Despite this, we are aware that a significant number of authorities are now running low on salt stocks due to the prolonged cold weather.

The Assembly Government is providing some local authorities with additional salt supplies for use on parts of the trunk road network that they maintain on our behalf.  This means they will now have more salt for use on local roads.

In addition, we are also liaising with Salt Union, the salt supplier to most of the Local Authorities in Wales, to assist in the prioritisation of salt deliveries. We will continue to liaise with local authorities to ensure that where appropriate, salt is delivered on a priority basis.

Weather forecasts indicate that the current cold weather is likely to continue for at least another 10 days. The distribution of available salt must therefore be made against this backdrop, as will the prioritisation of which routes should be salted.