Look out for yourself and others as Amber Cold Health Alert issued

An Amber Cold Health Alert has been issued for the south east due to the current cold weather.

The alert has been in place since Thursday 2 January and has now been extended to 9am on Tuesday 14 January. This is being reviewed daily, so please check the forecast and national cold weather warnings.

Cold weather can have a serious impact on health especially for vulnerable groups such as older people, families with young children, people sleeping rough and those living with long-term illnesses.

There is plenty of information on our stay safe in the cold webpages and look out for updates if further cold weather warnings are issued.

Looking out for others

Please look out for others and check on your elderly and vulnerable neighbours to see if they need help with getting food, medicine, or care during cold weather.

If you know people who are having problems getting services they need, contact our adult social care helpline 01273 295555.

If you are struggling to keep your home warm, you can find support and advice on our support with energy bills and advice about how to keep your home warm and save energy webpages.

If you’re concerned about anyone sleeping rough in the city, including people staying in tents, please let us know by reporting through the Streetlink website.

Staying safe on roads and pavements

With temperatures dropping, our gritting teams will be out gritting the roads this evening.

Our aim is to keep major routes treated and clear, prioritising key routes, including bus routes and roads that lead to places like hospitals and the city centre.

Unfortunately, gritting can’t guarantee roads are free of ice and snow. It also relies on traffic helping to mix the grit into surface water to prevent it from freezing, so please take care on roads and pavements.

We have grit bins at more than 400 locations, often on steep road junctions or hills.

If your nearest grit bin needs refilling, please complete our online grit bin form.

More information about how we keep roads safe.