NORTH Yorkshire Council has rejected five requests - including one by a Dales primary school - to grit specific roads across Craven during the approaching winter season.

The council looks after one of the largest road networks in the country at more than 9,000km, with most routes in rural locations that can feel the brunt of cold weather during the winter months.

Council gritting crews are on call 24 hours a day from October until the end of the season.

For the 24/25 season, the council has allocated a huge budget of £8.3m for winter services on roads.

This includes gritting ahead of snowfall and ice to ensure that traffic can keep moving.

Each year, the council receives requests from residents, parish councils and local councillors to prioritise new roads that could be added onto its usual routes.

However, all of the requests in Craven were rejected with the council saying that it was satisfied with its current gritting priorities.

Threshfield Primary School asked for a 900-metre stretch of road between Station Road and Church Road to be added to the gritting route to make it easier to drive during icy weather.

A request to grit Kell Syke Lane in Calton, near Airton, was rejected due to the road not having a turning area for a gritter to manoeuvre.  For the last seven years, a resident in Hawkswick has asked for the village to be added to a gritting route but their bid was rejected again.

North Yorkshire councillor Philip Barrett, who represents Glusburn, Cross Hills and Sutton-in-Craven, asked that the road serving the 78A bus route in Glusburn from Greenway up to Valley View be included within a higher priority gritting route.

The council agreed that this would allow the bus service to serve the stop at the end of Greenway, which serves a large number of properties, however the request was still rejected.

Cllr Barrett also asked that another section of the 78A bus route including Croft Hill and Manor Way in Sutton in Craven could be included on a higher priority route but this was rejected too.

The council's gritting crews are on call 24 hours a day from October to the end of the winter season. Gritting does not guarantee an ice free surface. Traffic needs to drive over a gritted road in order to grind the salt and activate it. Salt alone does not melt snow and ice. The council monitors conditions throughout the day and night and adjusts its gritting plans as needed.