So far this winter East Sussex Highway’s fleet of 22 gritters have been out 20 times, treating a total of 25,040 km of roads across the county.

Youngsters from two Hastings schools were given the chance to climb on board a gritter when a driver from East Sussex Highways made a pit stop at their school.

With gritting runs complete, the machine nicknamed Ready Salted took a detour to visit two schools and a pre-school, with driver Shane Snelling telling pupils how he helps to keep the county’s roads clear when temperatures drop.

Pupils at Hastings Academy were visited on Tuesday, January 21st, while the gritter rolled up at All Saints CE Junior School on Monday, February 3rd.

On Wednesday, February 5th, Children at Union Corner pre-school in Hailsham were treated to a visit from Ready Salted and Shane, who was joined by Councillor Claire Dowling, the county council’s lead member for transport and environment.

Ms Dowling said: “While our gritters are out regularly on county roads at this time of year, they usually do so at night when temperatures are at their lowest and very few people get the chance to have such a good look at one of the vehicles used to keep East Sussex moving.

“It was lovely to see how excited and enthusiastic the children were to get to sit in a gritter and find out how it all worked.”

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