Snow Friends guidance

Bromley Council’s carriageway (road) treatment

Detailed local forecasts are used to predict when frost or ice is likely to form on the road surface. When the road temperatures are predicted to be at or below freezing, gritting crews will salt the main routes across the borough. This work usually takes place at night or in the early hours of the morning. It is not practical to attempt to salt all of Bromley's 500 miles of road on a frosty morning, therefore, to make best use of the resources available, the council has established priority routes. Up to 200 miles of the borough's priority routes can be salted on a winter morning.

Precautionary salting effort focuses on:

• Main roads
• Bus routes
• Roads leading to fire stations, ambulance station and hospitals
• Other hazardous places such as steep hills.

Bromley Council’s footway (pavement) treatment

When snow is forecast, depending on the severity, precautionary salting of pavements subjected to high usage in major town centres, outside transport interchanges and areas outside school entrances will be undertaken when practicable.

What does a Snow Friend do?

Whilst Bromley is fully prepared to respond to warnings of snow and ice, there is a limit to the scale of the response. This means that, unfortunately, a number of Bromley's residential roads and pavements do not get treated. Snow Friends has been designed to provide a positive solution for snow removal in those streets that are not priority routes. It enables residents to work together, under the guidance of the Council, to clear their local residential streets of snow using snow scoops and salt supplied free of charge by the council, subject to availability.

Due to the popularity of the scheme, deliveries of supplies are made to coordinators, rather than individual Snow Friends.

Registration and training

All Snow Friends and Snow Friend coordinators must complete the registration form to confirm that they have watched and understood the Snow Friends Training Video and read and understand the risk assessment for volunteers removing snow.

How do I order supplies?

If you need to order salt replenishments or a replacement snow scoop, please contact your Snow Friend Co-ordinator; you will need to give them your registration number. If you don’t know who your co-ordinator is please email snow.friends@bromley.gov.uk.

Please note that requests to the council for additional supplies will not be taken from co-ordinators during a snow event and deliveries will only resume when it is practicable and safe to do so.

Guidance notes

The following guidance notes are designed to help you to act in a neighbourly way by safely clearing snow and ice from public spaces.

• Snow Friends under the age of 18 should be supervised by an adult and should not work in the road.
• Please ensure that you are physically fit enough to carry out snow clearance.
  • People with heart or other conditions, or those who aren’t routinely active should be especially cautious.
  • Check with your doctor if necessary.
• Wear suitable, waterproof outer clothing and footwear with good grip.
  • It is better to wear several layers of loose-fitting clothes for warmth.
• Before you start, warm up your muscles like you would before a workout to reduce the risk of injury.
  • March in place for a couple of minutes in a safe place and be sure to stretch your muscles.
• Start early, even if it is still snowing; it is much easier to remove fresh, loose snow rather than compacted ice that has been compressed by people walking on it, or cars driving over it.
• Do not use hot water to melt snow; it may replace it with black ice, increasing the risk of injury.
• Be cautious when working on parts of the pavement near to the road.
• Use the snow scoop to push the snow rather than lifting it.
  • Take care as there may be obstructions under the snow.
• Always keep your back straight when using a snow scoop and lifting bags of salt/grit.
• Avoid lifting anything too heavy.
• Make a pathway down the middle of the area to be cleared first, so you have a clear surface to walk on, then push the snow from the centre to the sides clearing at least a one-metre-wide channel on the pavement or a three-metre-wide channel down the road.
• Disperse snow evenly onto the grass verge or into the roadside.
  • Avoid creating large piles of snow and do not block access to driveways and so on.
• Do not clear snow from the middle of a busy road.
  • If you are clearing snow from a quiet residential road, wear hi-visibility clothing and do not work alone.
  • You may wish to nominate someone to look out for approaching vehicles.
• Spreading salt on the area you have cleared will help to prevent any ice forming.
  • A handful of salt or 100 grams per square metre is plenty.
  • Each 10kg bag of salt should therefore be sufficient for around a 100m length of pavement.
  • Table salt or dishwasher salt will work.
  • Avoid spreading on plants, bases of trees, or grass, as they may become damaged or even killed.
  • Do not use excessive salt as this can be harmful to wildlife and domestic animals, such as cats and dogs.
  • If there is no salt available, then a little grit, sand or ash is a reasonable substitute; it will not have the same de-icing properties as salt but should offer grip under foot.
• Particular care and attention should be given to steps and steep gradients to ensure snow and ice is removed; you may need to apply additional salt to these areas.
• Be a good neighbour; keep an eye on elderly neighbours during snowy periods.

Can I get sued for clearing snow?

There is no law preventing you from clearing snow and ice from the pavement outside your property, or public spaces.

It is very unlikely that you would face any legal liability, as long as you are careful and use common sense to ensure that you do not make the pavement or pathway more dangerous than before.

People walking on areas affected by snow and ice have a responsibility to be careful themselves.