Name Shropshire’s gritters – the results are in!
Graphic of Gritty Gritty Bang Bang, the name that attracted the most votes
Voting has closed in the search for new names for the 25 gritters in the Shropshire Highways fleet, with more than 2000 votes cast and Gritty Gritty Bang Bang, Snowcial Distancing, Snowvid-19, Snow Be Gone Kenobi and Captain Tom the most popular choices.
Names including Gritter Thunberg, Super Spreader, Spreddie Flintoff, Slush the Magic Wagon, Gritney Spears, Usain Salt and Gritty McGritface also attracted hundreds of votes and will now be given to the gritters. A full list of the winning names is below.
The voting opened on Wednesday 18 October [2020], and closed yesterday, Wednesday 25 October.
With five names already chosen (see below), people were asked to help choose names for the remaining 20 vehicles by voting for their favourites from the final shortlist of 50 names.
The names were all suggested by members of the public, with more than 750 suggestions made.
Two of the Shropshire gritters that will shortly be named
The winning names are:
1. Snowcial Distancing
2. Spreddie Flintoff
3. David Plowie
4. Snow Patrol
5. Gritty Gritty Bang Bang
6. Snow Be Gone Kenobi
7. Gritty McGritface
8. Spready Mercury
9. Snowvid-19
10. Grit the Road Jack
11. Ready Salted
12. Walter the Salter
13. Captain Tom
14. Slush the Magic Wagon
15. True Grit
16. Gritter Thunberg
17. Usain Salt
18. Ice Ice Baby
19. Gritney Spears
20. Super Spreader
The names that had already been chosen and didn’t go to the public vote are:
21. Zac Oliver
22. Jack Edwards
23. Charlie Desmond
24. The Harry Johnson Trust
25. Percy Mullaly
The five most popular names overall in the vote were:
- Gritty Gritty Bang Bang – 1053 votes
- Snowcial Distancing – 1031 votes
- Snowvid-19 – 978 votes
- Snow Be Gone Kenobi – 943 votes
- Captain Tom – 903 votes
Follow this link to see the Results of the name the gritters vote 2020.
Steve Davenport, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways and transport, said:
“We asked for people to suggest names for our gritters, and then to vote for their favourites, and we had a fantastic response, with more than 750 suggestions made and over 2000 votes cast. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who suggested a name and all who voted.
Further information
1. The five gritters that have already been named:
Charlie Desmond suffered from muscular dystrophy and passed away five years ago at the age of 15. He has been described as ‘such a brave boy’.
Jack Edwards from Cleobury Mortimer passed away four years ago after a battle with leukaemia. He has been described as ‘an inspiration to the local community’.
Zac Oliver from Broseley was diagnosed with a rare strain of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May 2018. An appeal raised £500,000 to send Zac to Philadelphia for life-saving treatment.
The Harry Johnson Trust was established in November 2014 following the death of seven year old Harry in July of that year. Harry died following a nine-month fight with Double Hit Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
Percy Mullaly was a much-loved and long-serving car park attendant at Shropshire Council’s Shirehall headquarters. He sadly passed away earlier this year.
2. About the vote
In total 2036 votes were cast.
More than 750 suggestions were made, and 50 names were shortlisted. These were placed in five groups of ten, and people were invited to vote for their favourites.
The 2o winning names were the top four names in each group.
3. Shropshire Highways
Shropshire Highways is an alliance between Shropshire Council, Kier and WSP, working together to maintain and improve Shropshire’s roads and streets.
