Highland is ready for winter - are you?
14th October 2017
The Highland Council is ready for winter and prepared to grit council roads as the council's winter maintenance programme starts on 14 October.
Trunk roads in Highland are the responsibility of Transport Scotland and their operators Bear Scotland.
The council can confirm it has adequate salt stocks for the region of around 60,000 tonnes for the start of the main winter season and that there are no concerns about future provision of deliveries from the council's supplier.
The total salt usage for last winter 2016/17 was 37,200 tonnes, which was around 28% (£1.12m) of the overall cost of the service last year.
The winter fleet has been mobilised, serviced and salt spreading equipment checked. The fleet includes 105 gritters, 42 footpath tractors and over 200 staff providing winter maintenance services.
This year (2017/18) the Council is replacing some of its existing winter fleet with 14 new vehicles; the first of which have arrived and remaining are expected to be delivered through November. On completion of this latest order the authority will have renewed 59 vehicles (57%) of the winter heavy fleet over the last four years.
Staff involved in winter services provision at area level are trained in using the Council’s weather forecasting service. The forecasts are used each year to assist local decision-making on daily and longer term winter services actions.
Chair of the Council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Allan Henderson said: "We have the supplies and resources in place to provide a winter service this year in the Highlands according to the Council’s policy. Council roads and pavements are gritteds as specified within the council’s agreed winter maintenance policy - details of this are on the council’s website at www.highland.gov.uk/gritting.
"The Council will continue to do what it can within its resources and policy however, I would encourage communities to come forward and apply for winter resilience assistance from the Council that will provide them with salt in grit bins or heaps and other equipment to take action in their local areas that are important to them."
Within its winter roads maintenance budget of £4.98 million for 2017/18, the Council is ready to salt - according to its policy - the 6,744km of roads for which the Council has responsibility.
Area Winter Maintenance Plans are set by Area Committees within Council strategy and budget allocated by the Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee. The Ross and Cromarty, and Caithness Winter Maintenance Plans for 2017/18 will be set at the next Area Committee meetings on 31 October and 21 November respectively. Until those dates, the existing 2016/17 Winter Maintenance Plans plans for each area will be in place.
Related Businesses
Related Articles
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
Members at today's (14 March 2024) meeting of The Highland Council agreed the local authority's new draft Community Wealth Building Strategy. They were also asked to note that a period of public engagement on the draft will now begin, with a final strategy returning to full Council for consideration in September.
Plans to invest up to £60m new Capital in Highland roads and infrastructure have been approved by Members at the Council meeting on 14 March 2024. The decision will see an additional £40m Capital investment in roads and transport infrastructure.
