WARRINGTON Borough Council's gritting team is ready to tackle the 'harshest conditions' as temperatures continue to plummet.

The gritting vehicles will cover 19,872 km and grit 14,398km of the highway network, with each gritting operation taking around three and a half hours.

The average amount of salt spread during a normal season is 17,000 tonnes.

Cllr Hans Mundry, executive board member for transport, said: "Our service is on constant standby from November to March to make sure that we can keep Warrington moving, even in the harshest conditions."

The authority and the parish councils have 192 grit bins across the borough.