Council confirms emergency measures to conserve road salt

Highland Councillors have confirmed that emergency measures to conserve road salt supplies will remain in place until the Council has built up a stock of at least 10,500 tonnes – seven days of treatment.

Emergency measures were taken by the Chief Executive on Friday 15 January when supplies fell to 6,900 tonnes and the Transport Environmental and Community Services Committee agreed today (Thursday) that these should remain in place to conserve stocks.

Low priority routes – Priority 3 and 4 routes which include most urban roads, school bus routes and rural roads and residential areas - will be treated with grit only.  This follows advice given by the Scottish Government. If dangerous road conditions develop on these low priority routes and salt is required to treat ice, efforts will be made to treat localised sections with road salt in the interests of public safety.

In the evenings, precautionary treatments for Priority 1 routes (main routes) will be limited to situations where ice is forecast to form before midnight and existing salt levels on the roads, as determined by ice sensors, are insufficient. Drivers should therefore be aware that main routes (Priority 1 routes) may not remain ice-free between midnight and 6 am. At all times, drivers should drive at the appropriate speed for the conditions.

The TEC Services Committee was advised today that the Council began the winter with a stock of 57,500 tonnes of road salt and that an additional 8,990 tonnes was received during the past month.

Since the adverse weather began on 19 December, the Council has used almost 60,000 tonnes of road salt, leaving a stock of 6,900 tonnes.

The Committee was also advised that £4.5 million has been spent on winter maintenance in this financial year - £400,000 short of what the Service had estimated would be needed to be spent.  The Service could call on a winter maintenance reserve fund of £1.4 million, if needed.

Neil Gillies, Director of Transport Environmental and Community Services, reported to committee that at this time last year, the Service had 45,000 tonnes of road salt in storage.

By the end of the financial year, the Service had used 79,000 tonnes, due to a prolonged period of sub-zero temperatures in February and March, last year.

He said: “Given that we still have the potential for severe winter conditions in late January and into February, it is recommended that the proposed conservation measures remain in place until stock levels are replenished to 10,500 tonnes which provides seven days supply at heavy usage, 1,500 tonnes per day.  The time to achieve this will depend on weather conditions and the frequency of future supplies.  Stockpiles will continue to be replenished to provide adequate supplies for the remainder of the winter period.”

Councillor John Laing, Chairman of TEC Services Committee, stressed that the emergency measures were being continued because of the difficulty of sourcing road salt supplies not because of the costs involved.

He said: “We are following the sound advice of the Scottish Government in conserving road salt, which is in short supply across the Highlands.”

Councillors paid tribute to the efforts of winter maintenance crews, private contractors and other council staff and members of the public who had helped in the snow clearing operations and had maintained vital services, such as bin collections and burials.

Councillor Laing said: “We are indebted to all our staff for their terrific response to this extra-ordinarily prolong period of adverse weather.”