Gritting Team
Do you want to help out the community in a practical way?
We have a volunteer winter gritting team who help grit the pavements each winter.
We have 5 push gritters we can deploy to get key routes gritted when snow and ice is forecast. These gritters were funded as part of an NHS Grampian project to reduce falls in our community.
What do I have to do to sign up?
You should be fit and well, and be able for light manual labour.
Get in touch with us via email, Facebook or come to one of our meetings. Email us on: ascomcouncil@gmail.com
We will arrange a training session to use our gritters.
You will be asked to fill in a registration form, and asked to read and sign a risk assessment.
A hi-vis vest, gloves and grit shovel will be provided.
One of our 5 NHS-funded push gritters
Map data available via the Open Government Licence: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
Using Aberdeen City Council data: https://spatialdata-accabdn.opendata.arcgis.com/
Grit/salt locations
Yellow Markers: on street yellow grit bins
Purple Markers: 1 tonne grit/salt bags, placed for winter 24/25
All these grit resources are for everyone to use. Please feel free to take a bucket-full to use on the paths outside your house.
It was difficult to find accessible sites to place bags in Ashgrove and Rosehill. Therefore bags were sited at the sheltered housing complexes/towers as the council owns this land. You are welcome to use grit from these bags to grit the surrounding areas they are not just for use in the sheltered housing grounds.
There are bags for the whole community to use at:
Rosehill: Hilton Court, Stewart Park, Dominies Court
Ashgrove: Ashgrove Court
Stockethill: Castleton Court, Woodhill Court
What are our limitations?
Our gritters are run by volunteers who realistically work in a radius relatively close to home and only when they have free time. We cannot guarantee to grit every path, every time.
We currently have no volunteers in Rosehill and Ashgrove. Please get in touch if you live in these areas and would like to get involved.
Why should I sign up to help?
Not all residents are fit and well enough to grit their own paths, and for them the injuries from falls can be life-changing. This means they are often housebound during extend periods of ice and snow.
To help keep our community out and about, we have a gritting team who operate push gritters, treating large stretches of path quickly and efficiently.
We have a WhatsApp group so we can advise when is a good time to grit (before the freeze!), and allows you to let us know when you're going out and are back safely.
Does it make a difference? (Yes!)
During winter 23-24 we were part of a pilot project funded by NHS Grampian - to see if preemptive gritting helped reduce the numbers of falls in the area. Each fall has a significant personal cost to the victim, and monetary cost to the NHS. the NHS analysis show we did indeed make a difference and you can read their full report here.
What locations do you prioritise?
We aim to treat:
Routes surrounding Cornhill Primary
Paths near sheltered housing complexes
Routes to local shops
Community Centres
Main walking routes and bus routes
The more volunteers we have across the whole community council area, the more routes and community facilities we can treat. We need your help!
How much commitment is involved?
We appreciate any help you can give - even if you just want to sign up to get notifications of when to grit your own stretch of path in a timely manner.
There will be no need to go out in bad conditions.
Just help out when you have time/feel able.
We use a WhatsApp alert system to let you know when to grit safely - this generally before the freeze comes.
Do I have to join the official gritting team to use the community grit bags? (No, you don't!)
Not at all! Everyone can use the grit provided by the council, even if you're just doing the stretch of pavement outside your house. Every little counts!
In fact, all able residents of the area are encouraged to treat their own paths and keep the pavements outside their properties clear of ice and snow. You can do this using salt from both the yellow on street grit bins and the large white bags of grit that are placed throughout the community during the winter.
Just take a bucketful of grit and follow the advice for safe gritting that the council provides here: Ice and snow
This portion of our website has been funded by a 2024 community council grant from the National Centre for Resilience.