Make way Brad Grit, Usain Salt and Spread Sheeran, there’s 37 new aptly named gritters ready to hit the highways in Cambridgeshire.
Make way Brad Grit, Usain Salt and Spread Sheeran, there's 37 new aptly named gritters ready to hit the highways in Cambridgeshire.
Each named by school children across the region, the gritters' names were whittled down from more than 600 clever entries.
One winner from March was eight-year-old Jessica who feels "good and happy" after naming one of the Fenland gritters 'Grityanna Jones and The Temple of Salt'.
Jessica wanted to enter the competition as her uncle is one of Cambridgeshire Highways' gritter drivers helping to keep our roads safe.
In October, highways revealed Scotty's Little Salt Soldier was joining the gritting crew, named after the local charity Scotty's Little Soldiers.
Following this, the county wide competition was launched in all primary schools to rename the rest of the fleet, as part of the county council's road safety work with schools.
In total, they received over 600 name suggestions from around 70 schools and the judges - three road safety officers - had the hard task to choose the 36 winning names.
Councillor Mathew Shuter, Cambridgeshire County Council's chair of the Highways and Infrastructure Committee, says the competition highlights road safety.
He said: "Our gritters play an incredibly important role in keeping the main roads clear throughout the colder months.
"This naming competition is part of our yearly engagement with schools on road safety, it is a fun, engaging way to familiarise children with the vehicles and their drivers and the fantastic job they do in all weather conditions day or night.
"There have been some real witty suggestions from our primary schools and choosing the winners was difficult.
"But we would like to thank all the children and their schools for taking part in the competition and we are looking forward to welcoming the winners at our depots to officially unveil the new names.
"Look out for Bear Grits, Alexander the Grit and Lord Saltimort and their crew as they hit our roads to help fight against any winter beasts that cross the county this winter."
The lucky winners have all been invited to naming ceremonies across the county council's highways depots on Saturday, January 18 and 25.
Eight-year-old Jessica will be attending the Fen ceremony dressed as her favourite film adventurer, Indiana Jones.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here