When a site needs gritting
- Staff and visitors cross the car park on icy mornings
- Ramps, steps and entrances stay frosty in the shade
- Disabled bays and the path to the door freeze overnight
- Residents use communal paths and steps through the winter
- The site has no gritting plan for the coming winter
Winter gritting in Cardiff
In Cardiff the work covers car parks, private estate roads and the paths around buildings, which sit outside the council's gritting programme. On business parks, the lease decides whether the managing agent or the occupier treats each area.
Shaded car parks, north-facing ramps and paths under buildings keep their ice long after open roads thaw, so treatment is planned the evening before a forecast frost.
Get a quote in CardiffGritting around Cardiff: parks, retail and frost
These parks sit by junction 30 of the M4 and along Parkway. Office car parks there fill early, so salt needs to be down before the first cars arrive.
Cardiff Bay Retail Park on Ferry Road has an open car park crossed by shoppers. Crossings, trolley bays, ramps to entrances and delivery yards behind the shops carry the most footfall.
Sites in Llanishen, Whitchurch and Pentwyn need treated paths between buildings and car parks, where staff, patients and visitors walk in the dark winter mornings.
Bute Park records about 33 days of air frost a year. Salt works best spread before ice forms, and it acts more slowly on ice that has already set.
Areas of Cardiff we cover
- Cardiff Gate and Pontprennau CF23
- Pentwyn CF23
- St Mellons CF3
- Rumney CF3
- Cardiff Bay CF10
- City centre CF10
- Grangetown CF11
- Llanishen CF14
- Culverhouse Cross CF5
What gritting covers
Routes marked in order of priority on a plan of the site.
Salt spread when frost, ice or snow is forecast for your area.
Treatment of parking areas, disabled bays and access roads.
Pedestrian routes between parking and entrances treated by hand.
How a gritting arrangement works
- Marking the routes
Priority routes are marked on a site plan or aerial view in autumn.
- Agreeing the triggers
The forecast conditions that start a visit, and the times visits happen, are agreed with you.
- Treating the routes
Salt goes down on the priority routes first, then on lower-priority areas.
What the price depends on in Cardiff
- The area of car parks, roads and paths
- The number of priority routes
- The trigger conditions and visit times agreed
- How many treatments a cold spell needs
- Areas the managing agent already treats under the lease, which come off the plan
- Opening hours, including weekends
Winter gritting in Cardiff: questions
Our office is on Cardiff Gate Business Park. Who grits the estate road?
That depends on the park's management arrangements and your lease. Ask the managing agent which roads and paths it treats; anything left to you can go into a gritting plan.
Is there a legal duty to grit our car park?
The Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 requires occupiers to take reasonable care for visitors' safety, and HSE guidance asks employers to manage slip risks from ice outdoors. This is general information, so take advice for your own site.
Are cycle stands and staff bike routes on site included?
They can be. Mark them on the site plan with the paths and car park areas you want treated.
Winter cover for a Cardiff car park
Attach a marked-up plan or aerial photo of the site, give its address and opening hours including weekends, and say whether a managing agent treats the estate roads.
This service is carried out by Limeworks Outdoor Services, a Dragon Multi-Trade brand.