New facilities improve Council winter maintenance operations

The Highland Council has opened a new covered facility at Inverness for storing winter salt.

The Council has entered in to a commercial agreement for the provision of  transit warehousing at Inverness Harbour for up to 14,000 tonnes of salt.  The first consignment of 6,000 tonnes of salt to the new facility arrived by ship this week from Salt Sales, who are based at Carrick Fergus, Northern Ireland.

Councillor John Laing, Chairman of the Council’s Transport Environmental and Community Services Committee, said: “With winter looming, it is important to assure the public that we are ready to cope with the type of adverse conditions that we have experienced in recent years. This new salt facility at Inverness Harbour will provide us with a much improved service and the new business will help underpin the viability of the harbour.”

The Council has entered into a long term agreement with Scotlog Sales Ltd, a long established business based at Inverness Harbour with extensive interests in shipping, stevedoring and storage facilities. The annual throughput of salt will be in the region of 25,000 tonnes.

In addition to the stockpiling of cargo, the agreement  includes:

For many years, the Council has operated a salt storage depot located on land owned by the Inverness Common Good Fund adjacent to the Kessock Bridge Roundabout.

Part of the Longman depot will be leased to Transport Scotland as a strategic salt store for the Highlands. This will provide a reserve stock of around 7,000 tonnes which will only be used in the event of normal stocks running low.

The storage of salt at Inverness Harbour will provide the following benefits

The cost of covered storage at Inverness Harbour has been compared to the current arrangements, and has been found to be cost neutral. The cost of facilities at [c1] Inverness Harbour will be offset by savings from: