Salty McSaltash to the rescue
Salty McSaltash is one of Cormac's gritters helping to keep Cornwall's roads safe for winter.
Cornwall's winter service is operated by Cormac, whose crews are on 24-hour standby to treat our roads when temperatures are predicted to drop below - or close to - freezing.
Cormac make decisions on if, when and where to send out the gritters, usually around lunchtime each day. These decisions are based on specifically tailored forecasts which not only incorporate the local and national picture, but also information from 20 road sensors around Cornwall.
It takes around three hours to treat each of the Council’s 25 salting routes which cover around 925 miles of the road network and include the most heavily used A and B roads in Cornwall. Between them, these roads carry around 80% of daily traffic. You can view the areas we will salt by using the council's online mapping system.
Cormac also salt the roads to key sites such as hospitals, minor injury units, ambulance and fire stations, bus and railway stations and secondary schools. Crews aim to complete salting routes around an hour before road surface temperatures are set to hit zero.
Cornwall’s main trunk roads – the A30 to Penzance and the A38 - are the responsibility of National Highways (formerly Highways England) which manages its own winter service.
There are over 700 salt bins, largely provided by town and parish councils across Cornwall in locations not covered by the main salting routes – for example in villages or near primary schools. Cormac fill these bins at the start of each winter season and subsequent top-ups can be provided at a cost - town and parish councils are encouraged to fund these where they consider them to be a priority in their community. Town and parish councils can also choose to fund new bins where appropriate.
In terms of resilience, Cormac have 78 drivers on standby between now and April and the salt barns contain 15,000 tonnes of salt. Last year the gritters went out on 42 days, using around 4,500 tonnes of salt.
For more information about the service, including contact details for reporting urgent hazardous conditions relating to snow and ice, please read the attached fact sheet, which has been prepared by Cormac.
17th November 2025