Warning of the thermometer dropping below zero again in Hertfordshire

TEMPERATURES in Comet country are expected to drop below freezing by mid afternoon today (Tuesday), according to Herts County Council which has been battling to keep roads passable.

"If this forecast is confirmed, we will be salting from lunchtime onwards," said Stuart Pile, the council's executive member for highways and transport.

"The future forecast is uncertain and we advise travellers to watch for updates."

Gritters were run throughout the night as Hertfordshire saw more snow fall.

"The word from the police this morning is that, thanks to our gritting crews working tirelessly through the night, 99 per cent of Hertfordshire's main roads are driveable with care," said Cllr Pile.

"However, we would like to reiterate their advice that motorists only take essential journeys today and take additional care when using side streets.

"When snow is actually falling, we concentrate our resources to keep the main roads passable where we can, and to return them to near normal conditions as soon as possible. Once we have achieved that, we turn to roads which are less busy in priority order, and to the most-used footways in town and village centres.

"Over the last few days we have seen repeated snowfalls and continued low temperatures, so we have had to keep going back to the main routes. We have succeeded in keeping almost all of them passable, sometimes at reduced speed or capacity. Between snowfalls, we have been working on secondary and minor roads as much as we can. We do rely on travellers to appreciate that we cannot maintain normal driving conditions, to travel only when necessary, and to take especial care on residential and minor roads. We will get to them as soon as we can."

In the last 24 hours, gritters from Hertfordshire Highways have spread close to 2,000 tonnes of salt on the county's roads. Salt stocks remain healthy.