Winter Service

The council has a Winter Service Plan in place between October and April to deal with seasonal weather events, which can be found below:

2024 to 2025 Winter Service Plan (PDF) 

The objective of the plan is to prioritise the service to keep the borough moving during this period. This plan is reviewed annually.

During the winter months, we carry out the following activities:

• Pre-gritting of roads to prevent the formation of ice
• Continuous gritting of the road network during periods of ice and snow
• Place out and maintain grit bins
• Removal of snow and gritting of footpaths

Ad hoc gritting requests will only be considered following the completion of service priorities.

We're not able to grit all roads in Waltham Forest and as a result have prioritised key routes such as major roads, transport hubs, emergency services access.

Priority routes for gritting and snow clearance include:

• Main roads
• All bus routes
• Access to fire stations, police stations, hospitals and ambulance stations
• All steep hills
• Shopping areas, bus stations, railway stations and other high pedestrian use footways
• Other high pedestrian use footways

• Winter service routes: highways (PDF)

Please note: The A406 (North Circular Road) and the A12 (Hackney - M11 Link Road) are managed by Transport for London (TfL) in line with all other strategic routes for London.

The council provides grit bins at strategic locations (PDF) throughout the borough. We cannot place them everywhere but do try to put them where they are most needed, such as hills.

Residents can also use grit from grit bins but only for use on roads and pavements.

In order to ensure that grit bins are being placed in appropriate locations they will only be placed in accordance with the grit bin policy.

Snow Angels are local residents who volunteer to clear snow and ice from the footways and pathways in their local area.

Volunteer to become a Snow Angel.

During severe weather refuse and recycling collections may be disrupted as vehicles are not able to get around the borough.

Street cleansing will also stop during periods of bad weather and street sweepers will be used to clear snow and help grit.

If safe to do so, please leave your refuse and recycling out and they will be collected as soon as possible. Please bear with us during this period, we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.