Gritting priorities may be reassessed

The SNP councillor said: “We fell a bit short and need to look at the vicinity of schools – I’ve lost count of the enquiries from parents concerned about kids falling, and while we couldn’t possibly do every single pavement, we could do the perimeters of schools.

“NHS Lanarkshire says there’s a clear correlation with icy conditions; the week before Christmas was a real pressure point and had a knock-on impact on other planned trauma and orthopaedics.

“I understand there’s a cost impact, but it costs people in our communities not to go to work or to take time off to look after kids.”

Conservative member Sandy Watson noted the “pivotal” work of local farmers, including in helping to clear roads – and told how six of North Lanarkshire’s dairy farms were forced to dump 47,500 litres of milk as tankers were unable to access their farms in the snow.

He said: “This was a huge loss for farms, and a lot of this was very close to shops which had run out of milk; so people were searching while these huge amounts were being destroyed.”

Councillors agreed to review the possibility of designating routes to dairy farms as primary or secondary gritting routes, and the Airdrie South representative added: “I’m pleased that we’ve managed to highlight the severe problems faced by the farms, and look forward to seeing progress once it goes to committee.”

SNP members also unsuccessfully put forward an amendment proposing that staff who were unable to reach their workplaces during the amber warning periods should not be required to make up the time missed, with Councillor Claire Barclay telling members: “These were absolutely exceptional circumstances.”