BURY Council’s gritters will be out on the roads tonight as road surface temperatures plunge below freezing.

The teams were also out in force last night as temperatures were expected to drop to as low as -2C.

The council operates its winter service, which involves treating the roads on its gritting routes when temperatures fall below freezing.

It bases its decision to grit, or not grit, on the Open Road Winter Forecast Service provided by the Met Office.

Once a decision is made, the target is for the gritter lorries to work their way around all of the routes within five hours — the first hour allows for calling out the gritting crews from standby and then four hours to complete the gritting.

As part of the winter service, a limited number of self help salt bins are also provided.

Bury Council tweeted: "Our gritters are revving up for another night in action, starting at 5.45pm."

For a full list of the roads that are gritted, visit www.bury.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=11286.