RESIDENTS will now know how to address their gritting lorry, thanks to the efforts of Herefordshire children who worked to give every new gritter in the county a name.

Herefordshire Council ran the special competition for primary school pupils in October and received almost 100 entries.

The winners, which included Eli-Jacob Howard from Walford Primary School who named a gritter ‘Ready Salted’ were invited to attend the Balfour Beatty Living Places depot to meet their gritters in person, along with some of the winter heroes who maintain and operate them.

They were also presented with their own competition winner certificate to take home with them, and a mocked-up registration plate with their gritter name on.

Councillor Barry Durkin, cabinet member for roads and regulatory services, said: “This competition was a great opportunity for the county’s children to show their creativity at work.

“There were so many fantastic and imaginative names submitted, and we had a really difficult time deciding the winners. Almost every name gave us a chuckle and everybody who entered should be incredibly proud.”

Cllr Durkin added: “Gritting operations are just one part of the strong winter maintenance plan in place to maintain transport connections for local communities throughout the county.

“There are 595 miles of Primary Routes and 420 miles of Secondary Routes to keep safe and accessible, and the gritters will be on standby 24 hours a day, seven days a week until the end of March 2025 to deal with whatever the winter weather throws at us.”

Mark Pearson, contract director for Balfour Beatty Living Places in Herefordshire said: "We look forward to seeing these unique and creatively named gritters in action as they help keep everyone moving, no matter the weather."

● The other winning names were Snow-way!, Ice-a-saurus Rex, Sprinkle, Humpfreeze, Sir Grit-a-Lot, Julius Freezer, Taylor Drift and Who Dares Grits.