Snow and ice clearance

Amber Valley Borough Council has the following priorities for snow and ice clearance and gritting during severe winter weather.

1. Cemeteries, to allow burials to continue.
2. Amber Valley Borough Council car parks, to assist local shops and businesses.
3. Amber Valley Borough Council offices, to enable residents to access services
4. Amber Valley Borough Council town centre pavements

It will strive to keep these areas clear of snow and ice and safe to use.

60 tonnes of grit are held as a sufficient stock but this will be challenged by the demands of a winter, particularly when the Council is unable to obtain new supplies. For this reason, in these extreme circumstances, the council will adopt the following procedure.

• The council will continue to fill its grit bins, grit the car parks and cemeteries until the stock is reduced to approximately 30 tonnes. At this point it will stop filling grit bins and concentrate on gritting the car parks and cemeteries.
• Should the stock then fall to 5 tonnes, the council will stop gritting car parks and concentrate solely on the cemeteries to allow burials to continue.
• When grit deliveries are resumed this will be reversed, i.e. an additional delivery taking the stock to 30 tonnes will result in the re-instigation of car park gritting and any delivery taking stocks over this amount will result in the re-instigation of grit bin filling.

This procedure will enable the council to continue to offer support to local residents through the provision of existing grit bins, whilst also seeking to ensure that it is able to keep its own facilities accessible for as long as possible.

Town centres

The council will grit town centre pavements during times of heavy snowfall. Please select one of the following town centres to identify the areas we will be gritting.

• Alfreton
• Belper
• Heanor
• Ripley

Roads and footpaths

The council does not clear and / or grit public highways and footpaths as this is the responsibility of Derbyshire County Council.

Grit bins

The council maintains a stock of 390 grit bins across the Borough for residents to help themselves as quickly as possible to treat dangerous or impassable roads and footpaths. Use our lookup tool to find your nearest grit bin.

The bins are filled at the end of October each year in time for winter and refilled through the season. Please contact us on 01773 841335 if you know of a bin that needs filling.

Please note that the grit is to help clear public pathways and roads, it is not provided for use on private property. Please act responsibly for the good of the wider community and do not take it to grit your own drive.

The provision of grit bins is not identified as a council priority and consequently bins will not be supplied at new locations. However, existing damaged grit bins are replaced where there is an identified need.

Derbyshire County Council, Parish Councils and Futures Housing Group also provide grit bins across the Borough. Futures Housing Group fill the bins in sheltered housing complexes.

Any requests for grit bins at new locations should be made to Derbyshire County Council, which will authorise the siting of grit bins and maintain and fill those on most main roads.

Contact the team directly on 01773 570222 or email enquiry@ambervalley.gov.uk