HIGHWAYS teams have been on full alert over Christmas to treat Hampshire’s 5,300 miles of roads ahead of any cold snap, monitoring weather forecasts plus air and road conditions, to see when – and where – gritting lorries are needed.

Rob Humby, executive member for environment and transport, said: “We’ve had a relatively mild winter so far, with the fleet needing to go out only 17 times before Christmas.”

Salt barns are stocked with 25,000 tonnes of salt, and 3,000 community salt bins are also filled and ready to use.