Gritters were out in force across the district last night ahead of expected freezing temperatures.

Bradford Council’s fleet were out by 6.30pm yesterday covering all the of the district’s primary gritting routes and were due out again at 5am today.

A stand-by gritter was also out on patrol throughout the night with temperatures predicted to drop as low as -3C.

Bradford Council’s stocks of grit currently stand at around 30,000 tonnes, which is the highest the local authority has ever held. Each winter the Council treats around 750 miles of major and minor roads.

Temperatures are not expected to get any higher than 2C today, getting slightly warmer on Friday and over the weekend.

Yesterday’s early morning freeze caused havoc on some roads, causing problems for refuse collections in the Thornton, Queensbury, Baildon and Shipley areas.

This year highway staff have installed new trackers to help collect more information about which roads are being gritted and when they were gritted.

People can keep up-to-date with gritter action 24 hours a day by following the @BradfordAlerts feed on Twitter.