Council issues ‘Do Not Travel’ request

Bedford Borough Council is advising drivers not to travel tomorrow morning (Monday) unless it is absolutely vital as gritting continues across priority routes in Bedford Borough. The council has been gritting roads in the Borough throughout the day on Sunday, and is set to head out again overnight.

However, road surface temperatures are forecast to fall to MINUS 6 degrees overnight, and not to rise above freezing until after 10.00am in the morning.

Given the low levels of traffic currently using the roads due to the national lockdown, gritting is likely to be less effective than normal as there are far fewer vehicles around to 'traffic in' the salt by crushing and spreading it across the road surface.

Councillor Charles Royden, Environment and Transport Portfolio Holder said "We have been gritting roads across the borough throughout the day and will be back out gritting them again overnight. Despite this, in these unique circumstances, with temperatures set fall to minus 6 degrees overnight and into the morning, advice to motorists has to be that we expect the roads to be extremely challenging tomorrow morning and that they should delay their journeys until later in the day if at all possible".