PKC’s £200k winter overspend

Perth and Kinross Council had a £200,000 overspend on winter maintenance despite relatively mild weather.

The strategic policy and resources committee met on April 20 to note an update on progress with the 2021/22 general fund revenue budget.

Perth SNP councillor Eric Drysdale said: “It’s been, thankfully, a mild winter in 2021/22 so I’m surprised to note an overspend of £ 200,000 on winter maintenance.”

Cllr Drysdale asked if this was due to increased costs or if the budget was lower than it ought to have been.

Mark Butterworth, PKC’s head of environment and consumer services, said: “Believe it or not, sometimes with a mild winter and additional rain we need to apply the salt more than once and I think that has been the case this year.

“We have certainly seen less snow than we did last year but my understanding is we’ve had to apply more salt due to that milder weather and additional rain.”

PKC’s depute director of communities, Clare Mailer, said: “We’ve got an overall budget of £ 3.8 million in winter maintenance and – given that it has been a mild winter and we still have an overspend – a review of the budget going forward will absolutely be undertaken.”

SNP Strathtay councillor Grant Laing asked for figures on how much salt was being applied but these were not readily available.

Barbara Renton, the council’s executive director of communities, said the overspend could reflect an increase in prices with “an increase in the cost of fuel and other underlying costs”.

She added: “It’s not just that we’ve used more salt.”