Vote for Favourite Gritter Name

29th December 2020

... Comments

Wolverhampton residents are invited to pick their favourite name from a shortlist of 20 suggestions to give to the city’s new fleet of gritters. The city council recently asked the public to come up with names for the nine new wagons and received hundreds of suggestions. They have now been whittled down to a shortlist of: Banks’s Gritter, Beverley Kn-Ice, Black Country Beast, Bostin Grittle, Brrrrrrrrobert Plant, Chilly Wright, Coldie, Gritmore Reans, Gritters Ay We, Lady Wulfreezing, Noddy Colder, Nuno More Ice, Out of Darkness Cometh No Ice, Professor Chris Gritty, Sir Jack Sleighward, Sir Jackfrost Hayward, Sleighdy Wulfruna, Steve Bulldozer, Ta ra a grit, Yam Orite Snow Am. People can vote for their favourite name by visiting www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/grittervote

Councillor Steve Evans, cabinet member for city environment, said: "We want people to vote for their favourite name and encourage their friends and family to do the same.

“It’s a bit of fun, but there is a serious point to this which is about connecting council services back to the people we serve. “We asked the public a few weeks ago to come up with name ideas and there were some really fantastic suggestions. We’ve created a shortlist of the best ones with a local theme to make it unique to us here in Wolverhampton.” The council’s gritting team is on constant standby 24/7 from now until the spring and drivers are ready to go out day or night and treat the roads with rock salt if temperatures are due to drop below freezing. The council has almost 5,000 tonnes of salt is in stock which will be replenished as needed depending on how severe the winter weather is. Last year the crews were called out 43 times, but during the freezing winter of 2017-2018, which saw the infamous ‘Beast from the East’, it was 98 times. The council routinely treats 240 miles every time the gritters go out - which is the equivalent of driving from Wolverhampton to Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland.

Each call out covers 51% of all Wolverhampton’s roads and takes between 3 to 4 hours to complete using around 45 tonnes of salt.

About the Author