Road safety in winter

Find out how we keep public roads and footpaths as safe as possible for vehicles and pedestrians in winter.

How we prioritise winter road work

It is not practically or financially possible to grit every road and pavement and we are not responsible for every road in the area.

Roads

We have 18 priority routes, covering the main routes to where people live, bus routes and heavy traffic routes. These are gritted before icy conditions are predicted to start.

After the priority routes are covered, we have 10 secondary routes, which are gritted when necessary.

Pavements

Pavements are usually gritted when necessary, with priority for the busiest routes. Walking routes that serve busy shopping and business areas, along with main pedestrian routes are treated first. Dumfries town centre is treated whenever road gritters for the area are called out. Other walking routes, such as strategic cycleways and medium usage routes are carried out after the priority routes are completed. Priority link and local access footways are treated after the other routes are complete.

Check the gritting priority routes

Social landlord schemes

We only grit the public roads we are responsible for. Social landlords, such as DGHP, Loreburn, Cunninghamme and Irvine, are responsible for pavements and car parks in these areas.