Nod to changes in gritting times in Ross and Cromarty
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SATURDAY gritting will be partially put on ice for increased treatment on Sundays according to the newly agreed Ross and Cromarty winter maintenance plan.
The new plan was passed at Highland Council's Ross and Cromarty committee where it was acknowledged a push back from the public was likely as they would be unhappy at seeing work on some routes diminish.
However, also included in the plan was the availability of new appliances that can be attached to pick-ups and driven by office staff to augment local road treatments, freeing up gritters to concentrate on the primary, secondary and other routes on particularly bad weather days.
It is a considerable task to treat a road network that is around 1160 miles long with a total 24 gritters and 11 footpath tractors all with dedicated routes with the 367 miles of primary and 324 miles of secondary routes making up half the network.
Only once the primary and secondary routes are completed do the gritters move on to the 470 miles of other routes.
The changes were brought in due to the environment, development and infrastructure committee agreeing in August to provide the same level of treatment on Saturdays and Sundays.
But the winter maintenance budget remained the same so the Saturday service was reduced and the Sunday service increased to correspond to changing retail, work and leisure patterns and their associated travel requirements.
Now the weekend service will start at 6am for both primary and secondary routes, excluding school transport roads, with all secondary routes completed by 10.30am.
There will be no service changes from Monday to Friday from previous years.
The team of 35 full-time dedicated winter roads operatives will be supported by 13 staff from the Amenity, Streets and Waste team to support the footpath treatment delivering winter maintenance.
A standby system will be in place to ensure sufficient drivers are available to cover weekend.
The Highland Council’s winter service started on the October 14 and continues to April 14 when road and weather conditions across the local authority’s road network are closely monitored through real time data from icelert sites.
The sensors provide information on the road surface temperature, surface condition and the presence of salt allowing the council to respond to local conditions.
Region-wide a fleet of 105 gritters, 42 pavement gritters and a snowblower is maintained with a typical winter seeing around 50,000 tonnes of salt spread – in Ross and Cromarty approximately 15,000 tonnes is used.
Each year the council spends around £5 million gritting, depending on the severity of the weather, what is the longest local road network of any council in Scotland.
Committee chairwoman, Councillor Fiona Robertson said: “The message is that we are ready for winter and along with our Trunk Road partners we will do all the best that we can to keep people on the roads.
“Staff who will be delivering the service this winter are well trained and each year work hard to ensure we can travel around on the road network safely. Throughout the coming winter we will monitor the agreed plan to make sure we cover any changes in weather using our existing resources to best effect.
“However, we all have a duty to take responsibility for our own personal safety which is why I encourage drivers to be aware of our gritting policy as it is simply not possible to treat every road at the same time.”
She added: “People also need to be aware this year to the changes to Saturday and Sunday services. We all need to be well prepared before driving in winter weather and drive according to conditions.”
