The dos and don'ts of clearing snow and ice from the pavement as Sunderland hit with latest weather warning in the run up to Christmas

Community-minded people may be put off picking up a spade and clearing away snow and ice from public paths outside their homes, for fear of legal action if someone should later slip and be injured there.

However, Government guidelines on clearing snow from a road, path or cycleway says: “You can clear snow and ice from pavements yourself.

"It’s unlikely that you’ll be sued or held responsible if someone is injured on a path or pavement if you’ve cleared it carefully.”

The dos and don’ts for clearing snow

Further Government advice when clearing snow and ice is:

*Do it as soon as you can. It’s easier to move fresh, loose snow

*Don’t use water. It might refreeze and turn to black ice

*Use salt if possible. It will melt the ice or snow and stop it from refreezing overnight (but don’t use the salt from salting bins as this is used to keep roads clear)

*You can use ash and sand if you don’t have enough salt; it will provide grip underfoot.

*Pay extra attention when clearing steps and steep pathways. Using more salt may help

In Sunderland

Meanwhile, Sunderland City Council has outlined its priorities for gritting roads.

Priority 1 routes are roads which have very high levels of traffic and are primary bus routes, such as the A183 Chester Road and A1231 Washington to Sunderland highway.

Priority 2 routes are main roads and bus routes, treated after Priority 1 is complete.

Residential roads and paths are unlikely to be treated due to resources being concentrated on the Priority 1 and 2 routes.

However, whenever possible the council will treat footpaths around shopping centres, bus stops and footbridges; again in order of priority.

Major trunk roads such as the A19 and A1 are the responsibility of National Highways. For information on their winter gritting programme call 0300 123 5000 or visit www.nationalhighways.co.uk.

What the council says and its £1 million snow budget

According to the council, this winter, £1.039 million has been allocated and 13,500 tonnes of salt is stockpiled.

Deputy leader of Sunderland City Council, Cllr Claire Rowntree said: "Annually, as a council we allocate an appropriate budget for our city's Winter Maintenance service and we outline the priorities for treating our highways during wintry and more severe weather.

"Should be there be light snow and icy conditions forecast, our gritters are out pre-salting the highways. We do a lot of this work overnight and in the early hours of the morning preparing our highways for daytime traffic.

"We are all aware of how there can be longer periods of severe wintry weather and when we get these conditions the priority for gritters and snow clearing is always our main and busiest roads.

"We have to keep these main roads as clear as possible so people get to work, school or college, help to keep the emergency services moving, and see that goods and services can move across the city.”

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for snow and ice for Sunday (December 18), with temperatures expected to hover close to 0°C, before getting milder from Monday (December 19).