Councillors praise work of gritters as road temperatures expected to dip to -5C

“Top politicians? Mr Cameron? or even at a push Mr Clegg? No, just some bloke from the Council. Come one Echo, step up your journalism, this is shocking.

I'm sure as individuals the gritter drivers do a great job and I wouldn't suggest for a moment that we don't all appreciate our roads being gritted. Whether roads are gritted regularly enough or the right roads are gritted isn't down to the drivers themselves, rather their management telling them where to be.

However, I don't believe they desvere any special praise above and beyond any other public workers who all year round (let alone in these current harsh conditions) empty our bins, deliever our mail, assist our eldery/ill or do any other much needed public service, whatever that maybe in our community. Our local newspaper isn't printing thank you stories to those people, yet the Echo is jumping on yet another snow-driven bandwagon story to congratulate only the gritters.

So, Echo, are you going to praise the other workers or is this story simple copy and paste of a press release you've been sent? Can we expect any real journalism from you?”

“All main roads into Lincoln were, and continue to be, gritted repeatedly. However, this does not mean that they will be clear of snow, especially early in the morning. Salt by itself doesn't do anything, it requires the motion of traffic over time to churn it with the snow into a brine. Salt is a huge help but not a complete cure meaning slippery patches and lying snow can always remain, so motorists are always advised to drive to the conditions, whether a road has been treated or not. Incidentally, whilst we grit all A and B roads, the A46 and A1 are covered by the Highways Agency rather than ourselves.

Regarding gritter speeds, they are limited when spreading to 35mph and are also constrained by the local speed limits.

Further information on why roads may look untreated when they have been, and why they may still have ice patches remaining or reforming, is here: null”

“i moved from metheringham to burton waters recently but still have to drive to metheringham as that is where i work, i was quite worried about the roads but my fears were all for nothing, they were absolutly fine, the gritters have done a brilliant job as far as i am concerned and am very grateful as i have been getting to work ok.”

“The picture says it all ........ LINCOLN TOWN CENTRE IS GRITTED!!!! What about the main roads INTO Lincoln? The A46 was utter chaos this morning, slippery surfaces, lying snow and too many drivers not knowing how to drive to the conditions. A breakdown on the bypass, leading to a 3 hour trip to travel 15 miles ......... what a joke! I can drive to London or Newcastle in that time.”

“I was lured into reading this by the 'top politicians' billing in the opening sentence. For a minute I thought our vast collection of MPs may have singled out our gritter operators' performance for special praise in the House. Silly me - does the Trades Descriptions Act apply to journalists' bylines?”

“they won't be praising them when they've crashed through speeding though, both gritters traveling through Branston on Sunday were exceeding the speed limit of 30mph”