Caithness councillor hits out at 'far from satisfactory position' on road gritting after spate of accidents
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A CAITHNESS councillor has contacted senior officials at Highland Council over the "far from satisfactory position" regards road gritting in Caithness this week.
Ron Gunn, a Thurso and Northwest Caithness ward representative and chairman of the Caithness Committee, emailed chief executive Derek Brown and senior officers in the roads department after a spate of accidents on Wednesday morning.
Councillor Gunn said the north should have ten gritters but only had six as four were unavailable for " a variety of reasons."
He urged the chief executive to review the situation. "We were really struggling on Wednesday morning and were down four gritters for a variety of reasons, including waiting for parts for some of them. Some primary school routes were not gritted at the time and I have asked the chief executive to review the situation. There were 12 accidents, the A9 was blocked for a while, seven cars were off the road, a lorry was jack-knifed and conditions were really bad."
"The Halkirk/Glengolly seemed to be the worst affected with the rest of the county not too bad but it is a far from satisfactory situation," he added.
Councillor Gunn said the road crews did their best but they need the equipment to do the work.
Around 12 accidents occurred in Caithness earlier this week and involved a number of vehicles including HGVs and cars.
A tanker went off the road at Westerdale while the Halkirk to Houstry road was closed due to accidents involving several cars.
The A9 was blocked at Sordale for a time – believed to be due to a jack-knifed lorry – and there were two accidents at Achalone.
Motorists were using alternative routes to get south.
Extra police were requested from Sutherland to help with the situation, it was stated.
