NATIONAL Highways has announced its gritters will be back on the roads in the coming days with a period of cold weather due.

The highways company is also reminding motorists to give gritters plenty of space and time after revealing one of its vehicles was hit by another vehicle while spreading salt earlier this winter.

Met Office forecasters are predicting a change to cooler conditions later this weekend.

Darren Clark, Severe Weather Resilience Manager at National Highways, said: “Whilst gritters travel up to 50 miles per hour when spreading road users need to be aware of the road and traffic ahead of them.

“We have had an incident this winter where the rear of a gritter was hit.

“We ask all road users to give our staff time and space to do their job safely, and if you see our vehicles indicating to change lanes please do what you can to safely help us to do this.”

Showers from the north could fall as snow over the high ground in Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland later in the weekend, with a mix of rain, hail, sleet and snow possible at the start of next week, especially over high ground.

Ice is likely to be an ongoing hazard for most from Sunday onwards.

To stay up to date with latest warnings on the Met Office website visit bit.ly/3ZCDm3F.