New gritters join the Transport for Buckinghamshire fleet

Sophie Ingham and her gritter, Snowphie.

Transport for Buckinghamshire (TfB) has taken delivery of three new gritters to help keep the roads clear in wintry weather.

A competition was held during December 2016 to name their three new vehicles. Of the 200 names put forward the winning entries were Blizzard Wizard, Snowphie and Brrrrrrian.

Other entries put forward, but not chosen, were ‘Melt’n John’, ‘Meltallica’ and ‘Salty McSaltface’.

Blizzard Wizard was named by Arran and Calum Kelly from Chesham. Brrrrrrian’s name was chosen by Beth Arnaud from Waddesdon while Snowphie was named by Sophie Ingham from Long Crendon who chose her own nickname which was given to her as it snowed on the day of her birth. Her ‘glitter’, as she refers to it, along with the other two new trucks, will join the existing fleet all of which were named during 2009 by local schools.

Mark Shaw, Buckinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport said: ‘The guys who carry out our winter road salting work hard through a tough season, and having a little light relief in the form of fun gritter names just brings a bit of humour to the job. We love running these competitions and I’m delighted with the new names. Don’t forget to check them out online!‘

The new salting trucks will be out on their routes over the rest of the winter season, and can now be tracked in real time on TfB’s online gritting map www.buckscc.gov.uk/winter.

For further in the TfB gritters and information on when the roads are being treated can be found the Twitter @tfbalerts page.