December 7, 2010 11.03 am This story is over 159 months old

Blessing of county gritters postponed

No prayers: Gritters in Lincolnshire will not be getting their blessings today due to current weather conditions.

Today’s blessing ceremony of Lincolnshire County Council’s gritting depots has been postponed to allow teams to continue their salt runs through the icy weather.

As previously reported, since 2003 the Bishop of Lincoln carried out a blessing ceremony at the gritter depot in Sturton-by-Stow every year.

Dr John Saxbee, the Right Reverend of Lincoln, claims that annual ceremonies to bless the gritters seven years in a row coincided with reduced fatalities on the roads.

But this is the first time the event has been called off, a joint decision so the gritters could continue to do their work in the current weather conditions.

Principal Maintenance Engineer for Lincolnshire County Council David Davies said: “The gritter blessings play an important role in highlighting the need for motorists to take extreme care and the brave work carried out by our gritting teams.

“However, with the crews expected to be extremely busy carrying out constant gritting runs tomorrow evening, the decision has been taken to postpone the scheduled blessings.

“The blessings can also provide an important morale boost for the drivers, but they along with the Bishop understand that rearranging the event to a time which isn’t delaying the vital work taking place is the appropriate thing to do.”

Source, Photo: Lincolnshire County Council | Related Report: BBC Lincolnshire