Horsham pupils asked to ‘Name a Gritter’

West Sussex County Council’s contractor Balfour Beatty has organised the competition as it aims to re-name three of the yellow gritters in its fleet.

The three pupils who come up with the best names will each receive a high street voucher and their school will also win a grit bin, grit salt to fill it and snow shovels.

A gritter will arrive at the winning schools on the week beginning Monday, November 24, to show off its new name to everyone and visitors from Balfour Beatty will also give a talk to the school on how important it is to ‘Be Safe, Be Seen’ this winter.

Pieter Montyn (Con, The Witterings), WSCC’s cabinet member for highways and transport said: “Over the last three years the popularity of this competition has grown and grown – we see some wonderful names and ideas and we want even more!

“Eventually we hope we’ll be at the stage where every single one of our gritters will have a name.”

Pieter added: “Running this competition also gives us the opportunity to visit schools and help children learn how to keep safe during the cold weather.”

This is the fourth year the competition has been held and nine of Balfour Beatty’s fleet of 28 gritters have already been named.

Previous names include; Nitty Gritty, Gritter Bug, Snow Buster, Thaw, Gritiney Spears, Great Gritain, Crystal-a-tor,Mr Gritty and Cosmic Cruncher.

People entering are asked not to copy these names as their entries will not be counted and the closing date for the competition is Friday November 14.

If you would like to enter schools can email [email protected] for a copy of the entry form to distribute.