Winter Advice

1. Have you made the Winter Weather Promise?
2. Flooding Information and Advice
3. Gritting
4. Roads
5. Being a Good Neighbour
6. Staying in the Loop
7. School Closures
8. Bus Services
9. Other Services such as Libraries, Waste and Recycling and Museums
10. Keeping Warm
11. How we Work

Have you made the winter weather promise?

Winter weather can bring many challenges, from gritting and gales to flooding and freezing roads.

We make every effort to help local people and businesses wherever we can, but it's everyone's responsibility to be prepared and to take action.

The following information is a summary of winter advice provided by various organisations, with links to more detailed guidance (where available).

This page includes the winter weather promise, quick-reference advice sheets, information about flooding, gritting, school closure updates and keeping warm, and some useful contacts too.

We hope it helps you, your family and your friends to stay safe and well this winter. (Back to Top)

Flooding information and Advice

Many parts of Worcestershire are at risk of flooding, either from surface water flooding (sometimes called 'flash flooding') or from rivers bursting their banks (which is called 'fluvial flooding').

Even if you believe that your home or business is in an area that does not traditionally flood, flooding can occur anywhere so you should still take steps to be prepared (businesses should ensure that they have a business continuity plan in place).

Detailed advice about what to do before, during and after flooding is available on our main flooding advice page.

Flood warnings are provided by the Environment Agency and weather alerts and warnings are issued by the Met Office.

Help us tackle surface water flooding

The sheer volume of rain that can fall in a short space of time can sometimes make surface water flooding unavoidable. However, we try to make sure that water can drain away from our highways as quickly as possible.

If you know of a road where water drainage is a problem, please let us know by either  reporting a highways defect online or by calling the Worcestershire Hub on 0845 607 2005.

Frozen or burst pipes

Severn Trent Water are advising residents with frozen pipes to turn off the water supply at their household stop tap and wait until the water defrosts naturally.

If you think there may be a wider problem with the local water supply, check with neighbours before calling the Severn Trent Water Helpdesk on 0800 783 4444. For further information, visit the Severn Trent Water website. (Back to Top)

Gritting

We do our best to keep the highways network running as effectively as we can during periods of ice and snow, primarily by gritting a number of key routes.

A primary network of 1,300km is treated in the first instance, with a secondary network treated when conditions require it and when resources allow.

Please plan your journeys carefully when there is a risk of ice or snow. A full map of the county's gritting routes is available to download. To see maps for individual districts, and for further information about gritting, please see our main gritting page. Further information is also on the Highways Agency website.

Roads

Driving in snow and ice

The best place to find advice about driving in severe weather conditions is the government's Direct Gov website. You can find information about planning journeys, making your journey and getting help if things go wrong on the Safety in extreme weather page. You can also see information on Worcestershire roadworks and road closures. Further information is also on the Highways Agency website.

Also see information on Park and Ride services. (Back to Top)

Being a good neighbour

Please check on elderly neighbours or relatives, and:

• Make sure they are eating and drinking regular hot meals and drinks – perhaps make an extra portion for them next time you're preparing a meal
• Check that their cupboards are stocked – if not, offer to pick them up some groceries on your next visit to the supermarket
• Advise them to wear several layers of thin clothes rather than one layer of thick clothing – this keeps warm air trapped
• Make sure their heating is in good working order and turned on – the temperature of a room that most of their time spent in should be between 18-21 degrees Celsius
• Ensure they have a couple of thick blankets handy
• Give them your phone number and make sure it's in a handy place if they do need your help. (Back to Top)

Staying in the loop

The best way to get the latest information about how winter weather conditions are affecting Worcestershire and the area where you live is to tune in to local radio stations. The following frequencies are for FM radios:

• BBC Hereford & Worcester 96,104, 104.4
• Free Radio 102.8
• The Wyre 107.2
• Heart 100.7
• Touch 102.2
• BRMB 96.4

Save them to your radio pre-sets now if you can, or keep them handy for when you need them.

County Council alerts

The homepage of our website features alerts whenever important information needs to be communicated. These alerts appear above the news stories on the right-hand side of the page. Our alerts will be used to provide information about severe weather warnings, roads affected by snow and ice, school closures (see below), library closures, museums, waste & recycling collections and disruption to public transport, among other things.

Follow us on Twitter

Our main Twitter account also allows us to communicate important messages. During snow and ice, it's often referred to as the 'Gritter Twitter'. To follow us, either visit www.twitter.com/worcscc or search for @worcscc on your Twitter application. (Back to Top)

School closures

It's very rare that we ask all schools to close because of severe weather - the decision about whether to remain open or not is predominantly taken by each individual school. For that reason, it can vary greatly from one part of the county to another. 

The homepage of our website will include an alert whenever schools are affected by severe weather, which will be updated regularly with the latest information that schools provide to us (look our for alerts above the news stories on the right-hand side of the page). You can also link directly to the school closures for today's closed schools or for tomorrow's closed schools web pages. 

Another source of up-to-date information about school closures are the BBC Hereford and Worcester  and Free Radio radio stations, which lists all individual schools affected at regular intervals. The FM frequencies for BBC Hereford & Worcester are 96, 104 or 104.4, while Free Radio is on 102.8. (Back to Top).

Bus Services

Buses and bus routes can easily be effected by bad weather. Services effected will be published on the website homepage as well as further information published in more details on the bus service travel news web page.

Other Services such as Libraries, Waste & Recycling and Museums

The homepage of our website will also include an alert whenever services including Libraries, Waste & Recycling Collections and Museums are affected by severe weather, which will be updated regularly with the latest information that the services provide to us (look our for alerts above the news stories on the right-hand side of the page). (Back to Top).

Keeping warm

You may have heard of the Warmer Worcestershire website, where you can see a thermal map of the county and discover how much heat is being lost from your home.

It also contains information about grants and offers available to help you to keep warm when the worst of the winter weather starts to bite.

A simple tip to help you, or your family and friends, to stay warm is to eliminate draughts and wasted heat by installing a cheap, easy-to-fix brush or PVC seal on your exterior doors. Letterboxes and keyholes should be covered too. (Back to Top)

How we work

Here at Worcestershire County Council, we work with a wide range of partners to prepare for winter weather and we all act together to respond when events occur.

Our partners include the police, the fire and rescue service, the county's six district councils, NHS Worcestershire and many more. The group that links everyone together is the West Mercia Local Resilience Forum.

You can be assured that all of the different organisations communicate with each other and make their plans together to provide the best services possible for you, your families and friends in Worcestershire. (Back to Top)

This page was last reviewed 22 March 2013 at 15:23.
The page is next due for review 18 September 2014.