Phone: 07970 946329
How We Work
Gloucestershire Gritting has been serving businesses across Gloucestershire, Swindon and Worcester since 2011. Here’s how we manage safety, quality and environmental responsibility behind the scenes.
Leadership and accountability
Overall responsibility for health and safety sits with John Tingey, our Managing Director, who signs and reviews our Health & Safety Policy personally. Day-to-day health and safety management — including our accident reporting, incident book, and the annual policy review — is handled by Catharine Hurford. Our Health & Safety and Wellbeing Policy Statement is reviewed and reissued at least once a year (most recently 26 August 2025) to reflect any changes in our business activity or the law.
Insured for up to £10 million
We’re fully insured, with public liability cover of £10 million (a £5 million primary policy plus a £5 million excess/top-up layer) and employers’ liability cover of £5 million. We don’t hold third-party trade accreditation badges — instead, we’re vetted directly through the contracts we hold with the organisations we work for, including Nurture Gritting, our principal customer. (The Commercial Gritting page now links back here for the full detail, rather than repeating this paragraph.)
How we vet our own subcontractors
Everyone who grits or clears snow for us — drivers, hand-gritting teams and snow clearance crews — works on a subcontracted basis, and every contractor is vetted, including a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check, before being added to our approved contractors list. New staff complete a health and safety induction plus training specific to their task (hand gritting, trailer gritting, or loading), and are issued the appropriate PPE: safety boots, high-visibility clothing, safety glasses and gloves to the relevant British/European safety standards.
Our fleet and depots
We run six 4×4 vehicles towing trailed spreaders, each carrying up to two tonnes of salt, plus smaller hand-held and pickup-mounted spreaders and a dedicated snow clearance team. All vehicles are Euro 5 compliant, and most are Euro 6. Every vehicle and piece of equipment is checked before use and serviced annually, with any defects taken out of service pending repair. We operate from four local depots — north and south of Gloucester, in the North Cotswolds, and in Swindon.
Environmental responsibility
We select de-icing materials with minimal ecological impact, and our operatives are trained to apply them precisely — only where needed — to avoid waste and excessive run-off. Salt is stored under controlled conditions designed to prevent spills or leakage, inspected regularly. Before each new contract, we carry out an environmental risk assessment of the site, paying particular attention to drainage and nearby water sources. Our fleet uses fuel-efficient vehicles to reduce our carbon footprint, and we support wider environmental initiatives such as tree planting to help offset our emissions. All our staff receive ongoing training in sustainable working practices.
Safety at our operational base
Our operational office is at Durbridge House, Redmarley, where our health and safety poster is displayed and where our accident book and first-aid provisions are based — every vehicle also carries its own first-aid kit. Accidents and work-related ill health are recorded and reported in line with RIDDOR requirements.
What our partners say
Nik Tozer, Managing Director – Winter Gritting at Nurture, our principal customer, says: “Gloucestershire Gritting Ltd has proven to be a highly reliable and valued partner, and we would have no hesitation in recommending John and his team. He treats Nurture’s clients as if they were his own, taking personal responsibility for ensuring sites are serviced correctly and responding quickly whenever additional support is required.” Nurture has worked with the company as a Territory Operator within its national winter maintenance network for over ten years — a relationship that goes back further still. We originally worked with TrueGrit, and have continued as a trusted Territory Operator ever since Nurture’s acquisition of TrueGrit just over a decade ago.
Service guarantees
We pride ourselves on a 100% turnout rate, with the flexibility within our teams to provide cover wherever it’s needed. We meet all contractual attendance times, gritting between 6pm and 6am as agreed, and if a re-grit is needed, we return within two hours of being alerted, and snow clearance is completed within two hours, working through sites in priority order.
Case Studies
Prompt response wins new business
January 2026
An airline pilot training academy based at Gloucestershire Airport contacted us in January 2026 after ice caused problems in its car park. The facilities manager needed a prompt, reliable service to keep the car park safe for students, staff and visitors at the busy training academy.
We started with a few quick questions: was the car park used mainly by day or night (daytime), and was any area airside, which would need specialist de-icing products (it wasn’t). The facilities manager then sent us a Google Earth image marking up the car park and footpath areas needing gritting — exactly the process we ask every new enquiry to follow. Because we could measure the site remotely, we gave a price that same day, confirming it was fully suited to machine gritting with our white marine salt, so no dirty grit would be walked into the academy. The car park was largely empty during our usual 6pm–6am gritting window, and access was straightforward. We agreed a 0°C trigger temperature on the Met Office Open Site forecast, and discussed our two pricing options: Cost Per Visit (no frost, no cost) or a Fixed Cost based on a predicted number of visits across the season — the latter often suits larger organisations wanting to budget for a fixed sum, but this client chose Cost Per Visit.
An early cold snap made things urgent. The facilities manager confirmed internal approval quickly, and we started gritting that same night — our operator briefed and given site maps before heading out. Contractual terms were agreed shortly after, and the facilities manager thanked us for how promptly we’d responded.
Gritting ongoing since January 2026.
Keeping a film production on track through an icy Cotswold valley
November–December 2025
In November 2025, we were contacted by the unit manager of a television production filming in a remote Cotswold valley outside Stroud. Conditions were bitterly cold, with freezing rain and snow forecast, and the crew were using a temporary aluminium trackway — itself at high risk of icing. With filming schedules extremely costly to disrupt, keeping the trackway clear was essential.
The unit manager provided useful site maps, but given how unusual and high-risk the job was, our Managing Director John Tingey made a site visit in person. Gritting was based on the Met Office Open Site ice-risk forecast, with a +2°C trigger agreed to account for the trackway’s particular sensitivity to icing. Timing was built around the filming schedule, and at the client’s request we made additional early-morning visits after nights of freezing rain, so filming was never held up. Our manoeuvrable Vale Engineering TS1200 4×4 vehicles handled the combination of hilly terrain, poor weather and tight turning circles with ease, and we increased our salt spread rate to 30g/m² to keep the icy trackway — and the forecast snow — under control.
“The production’s unit manager told us he was delighted with the service, and how quickly we adapted to the schedule and changing weather to keep filming on track.”
Gritting carried out November–December 2025.