Stormont department warns 'only travel if necessary' as ice warning coincides with gritter strike

There was disruption in parts of Northern Ireland on Tuesday morning after overnight snow and freezing conditions.

Several schools were forced to close, and some roads were deemed impassable.

However, the disruption occurred despite a full salting of the road network by Department for Infrastructure staff, which will not be the case on Thursday as Northern Ireland grinds to a halt due to strike action.

It has lead to the Department for Infrastructure to call on motorists not to travel unless absolutely necessary

Colin Sykes is the Department's Director of Transport and Road Asset Maintenance. He says they "have over 300 staff on standby with 130 gritters" to salt Northern Ireland's roads on any normal day.

However, with no salting from Thursday and Weather warnings for ice in place Colin is calling on people to take care: "Come Thursday midnight that will be the last time we will be able to deliver a full winter service so going into Thursday there is industrial action which will very much limit our ability to be able to carry out any gritting on the road network.

"So I would just ask people again to exercise extra precautions, the road network will not be treated the way people expect it and there may be some hazardous conditions.

"During these sorts of conditions, I would ask people to only travel if they have to and when they do travel travel with extra care."

Colin also explained how dangerous untreated roads can be during the winter: "When we have sub-zero temperatures there is a very high likelihood of ice and even black ice forming on the road network.

"That can be very hazardous and make driving conditions very treacherous on particular roads, given that we also have rain, sleet and snow showers that is just going to add to the extra difficulties.

"So I would be quite concerned if we are unable to deliver any sort of gritting."

Gritting staff are taking part in seven days of strike action from Thursday.

It comes as Northern Ireland is set to be hit by a mass day of strike action by public sector workers on That day as they take part in a 24 hour strike as part of an ongoing pay dispute.

The industrial action will be taken by health workers, teaching staff, roads service and police amongst others.

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