Highland Council winter road condition and school closure report for Thursday 29 January 2015

Road condition and gritting treatment reports by The Highland Council’s Community Services for the morning of Thursday 29 January 2015 are as follows:

Skye and Lochalsh
There is at least 5cm of wet snow on most roads below 150m, with up to 10cm on any higher level routes. All primary routes have at least one lane open, with the majority of them now fully passable. Crews are now getting on with treating the secondary routes. Posted 29/1 08:24.

Caithness and North Sutherland
All roads are affected by snow and ice. In the Northern and  Western areas of Sutherland there is  up to 75mm of snow lying on roads while Caithness roads are affected by widespread ice with a light covering of snow. All routes are being treated by priority. Posted 29/1 08:21

South Sutherland and East Ross
All routes have a light dusting of snow and are slippery below with some higher routes having up to 10cm of snow on them.  All routes are being treated as necessary. Posted 29/1 09:08

Nairn
There is 1 cm of fresh snow in Nairn, with lesser amounts found lying further east of the town.  More snow is on the routes leading towards Inverness, particularly on higher routes. Posted 29/1 08:07

Badenoch and Strathspey
Across the area roads have up to 4cm of fresh snow with ice below. There is some drifting on higher routes with snow showers still continuing. Crews are treating all routes by priority. Posted 29/1 07:55

Mid and West Ross
There is 150mm of wet snow reported on the A835 Knockan and the A832 Fain, with 300mm of snow reported on the A832 / A890 around Achnasheen. All other routes are also affected by snow, some lying on top of ice in places. Snow depths on most routes, except those already mentioned, is between 25mm-150mm. All routes are being treated for snow and ice by priority order. Posted 29/1 07:43

Lochaber
All routes have snow on them so are getting treated as per priority. Posted 29/1 08:45

Inverness
Low roads have a covering of 30mm of snow on them while there is up 100mm of cover on high roads. All gritting vehicles are out on their routes treating the roads by priority. Posted 29/1 07:03

Maps of the Council’s gritting routes by priority and policy are available online for: Badenoch and Strathspey; Caithness and North Sutherland; Inverness; Lochaber; Nairn; Skye and Lochalsh; South Sutherland and East Ross; and Wester Ross and Black Isle.  

The information provided is a summary of reports from operational staff and is intended to give a general indication of typical conditions in each area at a point in time.  It is not intended to imply that any individual route is entirely snow and ice free and drivers must be aware that conditions can change rapidly and make their own assessment of conditions for travelling.  

Highland has the longest road network of any council in Scotland and it is not possible to treat every road at the same time. A priority system is applied to treat the areas in greatest need first.  

Trunk roads are gritted by BEAR Scotland (North West) for Transport Scotland. 

School Closures:  

As at 10:20 today the following schools are closed due to the bad weather:  

Balnain Primary
Cannich Bridge Primary and Nursery
Daviot Primary
Drummond School and Nursery
Eigg Primary and Nursery
Fort William Primary
Glen Urquhart High School
Glenurquhart Primary
Invergarry Primary and Nursery
Kilchuimen Primary Nursery
Kinlochleven High School
Kinlochleven Primary and Nursery
Roybridge Primary
Spean Bridge Primary and Nursery
Strathconon Primary and Nursery
Strathdearn Primary and Nursery
Stratherrick Primary
Upper Achintore Primary, Nursery and Playgroup

Due to road conditions there is no school transport today to Marybank Primary school but it remains open to pupils who do not use the transport. 

Beauly Primary and Nursery; Central Primary and Nursery; Charleston Academy; Cromarty Primary; Dingwall Primary and Children’s Nursery; Millburn Academy; Milton of Leys Primary and Nursery and Nairn Academy all opened an hour later than normal this morning due to local conditions.  

The situation is continually changing so an up-to-date list through the day up until 6pm is provided by visiting the council’s school closure website www.highland.gov.uk/schoolclosures. Tomorrow morning parents and carers are advised to check this site from 7am onwards or use the school closures phone line on 0800 564 2272 using the PIN number for their school (which is also available at http://www.highland.gov.uk/schoolclosures) for further information updates.

Service Points:
Both Mallaig and Fort Augustus Service Points are closed today due to the weather so anyone with any queries should telephone 01349 886606.