WITH forecasters predicting the coldest winter for years, the man charged with keeping Bexley's roads clear says he is prepared.

A mixture of science, computer programmes and good old-fashioned salt should make sure all of the borough's main roads and most of the side streets remain open.

Tony Hughes, 48, head of the area teams for highways and amenities, says winter is the best time of the year in his job.

Despite dire warnings of bad weather, he aid: "We are as prepared as we can be."

Bexley has 5,000 tonnes of rock salt ready to grit the roads, with an option for replacement stocks until the end of February.

It has a new fleet of four gritters, a reserve vehicle with another on standby and a pool of nearly 30 drivers to take them out.

Bexley Council has provided Mr Hughes with state-of-the-art technology, linking him to the Met Office and the council's own weather station in the north of the borough.

The station contains a variety of equipment including moisture detectors and gauges to measure the surface and underlying temperature of roads.

Data from the Met Office and the weather station are fed into the council's Ice Cast system.

Every day at noon, Mr Hughes downloads information from Ice Cast.

It gives him a 24-hour forecast including the anticipated lowest temperatures, a five-day forecast, a road temperature graph, predicted wind speeds and direction and anticipated cloud cover.

He added: "If we are worried about conditions we may update the information three or four times a day."

At 10pm each night, one of four duty managers will download another update.

Mr Hughes said: "Then we decide what we are going to do. If necessary, we will do a precautionary gritting between midnight and 8am."

Bexley has been thermally mapped in mild, moderately cold and severe conditions and created a computer model of the coldest roads and areas of the borough.

Using the model, a short gritting route of 70 miles and a longer 100-mile route plus steep hills, for more severe weather, was drawn up.

These are gritted using different volumes of salt for different conditions.

Once traffic is flowing freely on main roads, streets expecting a refuse collection the next day are gritted.

Mr Hughes said: "This way, if conditions are really bad, all the borough's side roads should have been gritted after five days."

Shopping centre pavements are also gritted by hand by street sweepers.

Keeping Bexley's roads clear cost Bexley £130,000 last year.

Mr Hughes said confidently: "We have to deal with conditions as they arise and we haven't been caught out yet."