BOLTON’S gritters are ready to go to keep the borough moving this winter.

The service has been “tweaked” from last year.

Key changes include building on the partnership developed with Bury Council last year, so that in emergencies, Bolton has access to Bury’s stand-by gritter and Bury can use one or both of Bolton’s standby gritters.

This year will also see dedicated “Gritter Twitter”

updates with people following @BoltonCouncil being among the first to know the gritters’ plans.

Following a particularly heavy winter in 2009/10, Bolton Council was one of the few local authorities not to run out of grit.

But the council still came under fire two years ago as gritters across the UK battled the worst snow for 30 years.

So councillors last year voted to increase the town’s initial stock from 4,000 to 4,500 tonnes.

That remains the same this year, with the council proudly boasting it did not come close to running out last year.

Gritting is one of the few council services to escape budget cuts.

Highways assistant director Stephen Young, the man in the grit hotseat said: “It’s not deliverable to grit every single road in the borough, we’re doing what is practical with the resources we’ve got and I think we’ve got the balance right.

“We have clearly built on what’s been done over the last few years to get the system we have today and we’re as prepared as we can be.”

Bolton has nine gritters ready for action come October, as well as its two stand-by vehicles and one from Bury.

Drivers work a threeshift system, often missing Christmas and New Year, meaning Bolton is ready for the worst, 24 hours a day.

In the worst conditions, gritters complete a 510km full route grit, treating every main road in Bolton.

Where conditions are still tricky, drivers are sent out on “seek and destroy” missions making sure danger spots, ice patches, and high roads are gritted.

Last year gritters completed 74 full route grits — 23,500 miles — and a further 71 seek and destroy routes.

And the council is calling on residents to buy their own grit. Yellow bins across Bolton are currently being replenished, and while use of the salt on public highways and footpaths is encouraged, the grit is not for private use.

The council, as always, is also asking people to keep an eye on elderly neighbours through any extended cold snaps.

The council’s “Gritter Twitter” updates will also appear on its website bolton.gov.uk