Winter gritting plan approved for Caithness priority roads and pavements
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Winter gritting priorities for roads and pavements in Caithness have been approved by local councillors.
Highland Council said there was enough salt in all its depots as preparations for the cold season get under way.
Councillors at Monday's meeting of the Caithness committee approved the winter maintenance plan for the county, which includes priority roads for gritting routes.
Caithness contains 15km of primary routes, 222km of secondary routes and 49km of other routes.
The councils says that primary routes are treated first, followed by secondary routes. Crews will only move on to treat other roads when the primary and secondary routes are all completed.
The committee heard that there are 10 front-line gritters available along with six footpath tractors. A report showed that each vehicle treats, on average, 35.7km of primary and secondary routes followed by 5km of other routes.
The average annual usage of salt for the Caithness area is around 6000 tonnes and the council said it was well prepared with sufficient salt available.
Primary and secondary routes will be treated routinely from 6am including over weekends when conditions dictate.
A duty officer rota will be in place to ensure that there is always a suitably qualified and experienced member of staff available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to take decisions on the deployment of appropriate resources to deal with the prevailing weather conditions.
The staff team in Caithness includes one roads officer and one operational support officer, while the Wick depot has a foreperson, an assistant foreperson and nine operatives, with the same set up at Thurso, although with an extra operative.
Where necessary, staff from other council services such as amenities may be used to supplement the existing resources, the council says.
Each year local areas put in place their own winter maintenance plan to cover the operational details to deliver a service locally within existing budget and resources.
Cllr Ron Gunn, chairman of the Caithness committee, said: “To prepare for winter in Caithness requires a great amount of planning to ensure that the gritting policy, winter maintenance teams and the equipment and supplies required are in place and ready to be implemented when the winter weather arrives.
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- Gritting priority routes for Caithness (external link)
“Highland Council has an approved list of priority routes for treatment and would encourage the public to familiarise themselves with the gritting maps for your area. It isn’t possible to treat every road and path; however, the dedicated Caithness team work extremely hard to maintain a challenging geographical area.”
He added: “As in previous years we are keen to encourage communities to 'self-help' as much as possible and to be aware of people within their local community who may need assistance from neighbours in clearing snow and ice or possibly shopping or accessing health and social services during extreme weather conditions.”
Community self-help is being encouraged under the council's winter resilience scheme where communities can submit an application via their community council to carry out footway gritting operations within an agreed area. The council will provide the community with salt/grit, bins, scrapers and reflective waistcoats.
It say this does not replace the service provided by the council but allows the community to provide an enhanced level of service.
