The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Falling mercury sees gritters out on icy routes
Winter maintenance put to test as roads and pavements treacherous
A prolonged cold snap put health and council services to the test this week as plummeting temperatures and black ice led to dangerous conditions on roads and pavements.
NHS Tayside revealed it had been experiencing “exceptional” demand in the last few days due to a sharp increase in the number of slip and trip injuries, and urged people only to show up at A&E if they had a genuine emergency.
Accident and Emergency Consultant Dr Michael Johnston, said, “Our emergency departments have seen a significantly higher than normal number of patients over the last couple of days, mostly attributed to falls caused by the icy conditions.
A yellow Met Office warning of an ice “hazard” was in place across Tayside and Fife from Thursday night into yesterday at 11am, and another covering the most westerly areas of Fife and Perthshire was in place until 11am today.
Locals reported slippery surfaces across the region yesterday after temperatures dropped to -4.4C at Leuchars and -2.9C at Strathallan Airfield.
In Dundee there were reports of icy surfaces on the Perth and Arbroath roads.
A Broughty Ferry resident reported seeing elderly people “literally clinging to lampposts and railings” yesterday and said sections of the Arbroath Road pavement were “like a skid pan”.
Dundee City Council, through Tayside Contracts, is responsible for maintaining “priority, secondary and cul-de-sac routes”. During adverse conditions from October into late March they are treated seven days a week.
Secondary and cul-de-sac links are given “lesser” cover from gritters, however the local authority said all of its routes and footpaths were treated throughout the week.
A council spokesman said: “Road and pavement gritters have been out across the city all week.
“There are also 900 grit bins at significant locations in the city, many placed as a result of requests from locals.”
Perth and Kinross Council splits its winter maintenance gritting system into four categories of roads and the same number for footpaths.
The top priorities are “strategic routes carrying large volumes of traffic and connecting main centres of population outwith the Perth area” and “main rural roads”.
A Perth and Kinross Council spokeswoman said: “All category one parts of the network, when required, have been pre-treated and have received follow-up treatment in response to the prevailing conditions.”
Fife Council’s “primary routes” encompass 24 roads; eight each in Mid Fife, the south and the north. Footpaths are graded priority one, two or three, ranging from the main pedestrian routes to the most rural walkways.
Angus Council splits its network into three categories of public roads.
Priority and non-priority footways are treated along with the three categories of road, however “non-priority” ones are not gritted at weekends.