Children from Shakespeare Primary School in Plymouth will be visiting the Plymouth Transport and Highways depot on Wednesday to see one of the gritter trucks they have named.

The school is just down the road from Hatfield House, the depot from which Plymouth Transport and Highways (PTH) runs its road services, including gritting and snow ploughing during the winter.

As part of its efforts to raise awareness about winter road safety, PTH invited the school children to take part in a ‘name our gritter’ competition. This was kicked off before half term with a visit to the school by a large yellow gritter truck with a snow plough on the front.

The children were able to sit in the vehicle and ask questions as part of a week of road safety activities at the school. Classroom resources, road safety goodies and winter driving information for parents were all provided by Plymouth Transport and Highways, the partnership between Amey and Plymouth City Council.

Victoria Hutchins, Amey’s Watchman in Chief for PTH said: “The children had great fun seeing and sitting in the gritter, and hearing about how we keep the city’s roads moving during winter weather from one of our drivers.

“Some wonderful names were suggested as part of the gritter naming competition. We chose three with the school and name plates are now fixed on the trucks. We hope that by doing this the children and their families will be more aware of the wider issues of staying safe on the roads during the winter.”

Karen Menis, Headteacher at Shakespeare Primary School said, “Encouraging caution and safety during winter months is so important, when travelling to and from school in icy conditions can be hazardous no matter how you travel. Running the competition with Plymouth Transport and Highways really captured the children’s imaginations and we had a very successful road safety week as a result.”

All 463 children at the school received reflective items to wear on their journey to and from school. They also took home ice scrapers and the PTH fact sheet about winter roads, which can also be downloaded from www.plymouth.gov.uk.

The winning gritter names were:

* Shakespeare Shifter – proposed by Mackenzie Bunn, aged eight

* Grit Lightening – proposed by Kane Steel, aged 11

* Belle – proposed by Mia Westlake, aged five