PEOPLE in North Yorkshire now have an extra tool to help them to plan their journeys in wintry weather with the launch of a new gritter tracker.

The online service will let people see in real time where gritters are on the authority’s priority routes and where they have been during the preceding ten hours.

County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, said: “Already, to help plan their journeys, people can view our priority routes and see up-to-date images from cameras at key locations around the county, as well as following our regular social media gritting updates.

“The online gritter tracker is a further tool to help people to make informed journey planning decisions with confidence, particularly during wintry conditions. It gives more detail than ever before, allowing people to see where gritters are and which parts of the network have recently been treated.

“This is a bespoke service that has been developed in-house specifically for North Yorkshire. It is no small feat to develop a system to track up to 80 gritters and all the data they generate.

“We are confident that from day one it will provide a useful service to people travelling in the county, but we are keen to hear from those who use it about any refinements that could improve it further.”

See the tracker at www.northyorks.gov.uk/road-gritting