Council staff responsible for keeping Gateshead’s roads clear of snow and ice are now on 24-hour stand-by, enabling the Council’s fleet of gritters to be despatched day or night, seven days a week within an hour’s notice.

The lessons of the last two winters have been learnt, says Colin Huntington, Head of Waste Services and Grounds Maintenance.

“We’ve been hard at work during the summer months ensuring that our salt reserves are stocked up and our fleet of vehicles are ready,” he says. “As a result, we’ve come into this winter in even better shape than in previous years.”

“It’s impossible to predict exactly how much snow we’ll get - but we’re as prepared as we possibly can be. We have a lot more salt in reserve than this time last year.”

He added: “One of the great successes of last winter was our use of social media to update people on road conditions, bin collections and the like. Once again we’ll be making full use of Facebook , Twitter and the Council’s website this year to keep everyone up-to-date with development.”

Councillor Peter Mole, Cabinet spokesman for Neighbourhood Services, says: “It’s well known that Gateshead had a tough financial settlement from the government, and we are being forced to reduce spending by more than £38m over the next two years.

“However, we have been very careful to protect our budget for winter maintenance – so there have been no reductions in the amount we spend on gritting this year.”

Gateshead has more than 574 miles (924km) of roads, and grits 323 miles (520km) of road as a priority – that’s more than half the total highway network

Gateshead is the local authority with the highest altitudes in Tyne and Wear, reaching over 800 feet above sea level in the west of the borough. This means that the west of Gateshead can be considerably more prone to snow and freezing then elsewhere on Tyneside, with rain falling in Gateshead town centre falling as heavy snow in places like Chopwell.

Roads are treated on a strict priority basis. Major arterial roads such as the Felling by-pass and the A195 through Blaydon are classified as Priority 1 roads and receive the most attention because of the very high levels of traffic using them. Primary bus routes are classified as Priority 1, too.

Other main roads and bus routes are classified as Priority 2, again because of their high levels of use, and these are treated once the Priority 1 roads are dealt with. Minor roads, such as those through housing estates and in residential areas, are not normally treated. However, footpaths around shopping centres, public buildings or areas where there is a large number of older people, will be cleared of snow whenever possible.

Rock salt requires traffic passing over it to activate it so it doesn’t work on roads that have virtually no traffic. It stops working altogether if the temperature falls below -6 centigrade.