‘We’re well prepared for winter weather’
Stirling Council this week insisted it is well prepared to deal with wintry conditions.
Gritters were out on the roads this week for the first time as light snow was reported around Stirlingshire on Tuesday night.
The council’s environment convenor Danny Gibson said: “Obviously we can’t stop the weather causing disruption but we can be well prepared to cope with it and we believe we are.
“Our teams will be keeping a close eye on conditions and responding as necessary throughout the winter period, including posting any information about disruptions to travel and bin collections on our website and social media channels.”
While council teams have a priority system during adverse weather so that main routes are treated first, staff are encouraging residents and businesses to be proactive and work together if the weather worsens.
Priority One Routes receive precautionary salting and are roads which have a cumulative daily flow of more than 800 vehicles a day, including roads to important emergency services centres.
Priority Two Routes comprise roads which have a daily flow of more than 600 vehicles, and are salted if snow and ice is forecast beyond midday.
Priority Three Routes are identified tertiary routes where the flow of traffic is greater than 400 vehicles and Priority Four Routes cover all other roads including residential areas which are only treated in exceptional circumstances.
Councillor Gibson added that the council treats its winter service as a priority.
He said: “Despite financial constraints which have affected all local authorities in Scotland, Stirling Council continues to protect the winter service, policy and budget as we recognise the importance of keeping as many roads and pavements as safe as possible.
“We prioritise gritting by treating the busiest roads first, and not all roads are treated every time the gritters go out.”
The council provides 475 salt bins, for the storage of a 50/50 salt/grit mix, which are placed at various locations throughout the council area, and stocks will be replenished during or following spells of adverse weather conditions.
The authority has 7,462 tonnes of rock salt stored in Stirling and Callander, and will maintain levels at 7,000 tonnes throughout the winter period until midJanuary 2017 when this will be reviewed according to conditions.
The supplier for Stirling Council also reports healthy reserves, including 50,000 tonnes of salt stored in Glasgow, which is available for delivery at short notice if the weather deteriorates more rapidly than expected.