At the weekend we saw the clocks go back, and while the extra hour on Sunday was nice, it does herald the start of darker evenings as we head into winter.

Our intrepid highways team are a vital part of our winter weather plan, keeping our roads, footpaths and, most importantly, our residents safe. The team often works around the clock, to ensure the borough keeps moving throughout the colder months. Whilst generally our residents head out on a frosty morning safe in the knowledge the roads have been treated overnight to make them safe, I thought I would take this opportunity to give you an insight into what goes into this service.

Our contractor, Ringway, has three gritters with eight drivers working on a rota basis. Over the summer months, Ringway ensures all the gritters are serviced and calibrated, ready for the winter months. They also replenish the salt barn with 1,500 tonnes fresh salt stock. We have three primary routes covering approximately 178km of roads, plus we have 56km of secondary roads. The team also maintain the 78 salt bins throughout the borough.

It takes around an hour to get a gritting truck ready to go out and around three hours to treat primary routes. In severe conditions, the gritters go out up to four times per day. The salt works by lowering the freezing temperature of water and requires the action of cars driving over it to turn it into solution. Our heaviest truck weighs in at around 26 tonnes when fully loaded, which means in severe conditions it’s not always safe or possible for gritters to navigate smaller streets. One plea from our team is for residents to park with care and consideration on the borough’s streets, as parked cars can often stop gritters being able to access roads in order to treat them.

Another important issue comes in to focus this month, Mankind, a charity that supports male victim of domestic abuse, has launched Supporting Male Victims of Domestic Abuse Day, which aims to be celebrated on 2 November every year.

Did you know, around one in six men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, but only one in 25 people accessing specialist support are male. For further context, men trying to escape domestic abuse make up one in three victims of domestic abuse and men also account for one in four victims of domestic-abuse related offences reported to the police. There are clearly a lot of vulnerable people slipping through the present system.

Bracknell Forest Council will continue to look into ways we can support all victims of domestic abuse. You can help make a difference by using social media and posting #MenYouAreNotAlone. This will not only amplify the message, it may well help vulnerable men see what support is available to them. At times like this, such a small act can be incredibly important.

These are just two examples of the work we are doing to help keep our residents safe.