Island Roads carried out 22 gritting runs across the Isle of Wight during the 2025/26 winter season, making it the mildest winter in the 13 years the company has overseen the highway network.
Most of the gritting activity took place during a cold spell between Christmas and early January, with crews deployed on consecutive days from 24th December through to 10th January.
In total, just under 370 tonnes of salt were spread across the network to maintain safe and accessible roads.
This marks a notable reduction compared to previous winters. During the 2024/25 season, 40 gritting runs were completed using 830 tonnes of salt, while the year before saw 32 runs and nearly 479 tonnes used.
Despite the milder temperatures, the start of 2026 brought exceptionally high rainfall. The Isle of Wight experienced the equivalent of 6 months’ rainfall across January and February alone, making it one of the wettest starts to a year on record.
The combination of persistent rain and freezing conditions increased the risk of flooding and created ideal conditions for potholes to develop across the road network.
An Island Roads spokesperson has said:
“While there have been fewer gritting runs this winter season, there has been no let-up in the workload across the business.
Article continues below this advertisement “Whether through gritting runs or through maintenance work to tackle the potholes caused by the unusually heavy rainfall, it has been yet another very busy winter season.
“I would like to thank our winter maintenance staff for their dedication and hard work over the season – particularly as much of the required gritting took place in very cold temperatures while most people were enjoying the Christmas and New Year period.”
Although the official winter season has now ended, Island Roads has confirmed it will continue to monitor weather forecasts and remains prepared to carry out further gritting if unseasonably cold conditions return.
With such savings you would have thought Council tax would
have gone down.
Lol
What mild temperatures. Its been so cold for too long . Maybe not snow or ice but definitely cold wet and windy. Nothing mild about it. Longing for some mild and warmer weather
I think the wind has kept the ice away.
It’s finally starting to warm up, roll on May.