With Storm Caroline hitting the Highlands yesterday, today's heavy snowfall and the forecast for a drop in temperatures over the next 48 hours, the Highland Council's crews and winter vehicles have been busy in action.
The fleet includes 105 gritters, 42 footpath tractors and over the coming months 200 plus staff will be providing winter maintenance services. Last year 37,200 tonnes of salt was used and the council has confirmed its stock levels are high and they are fully prepared for further bad weather.
Treatments over the winter months are provided from Monday to Saturday between 6am and 9pm. Primary routes are treated first, followed by secondary routes and crews will only move on to treat other roads when the primary and secondary routes are all completed
On Sunday and public holidays the service is restricted to Primary routes only and treatment takes place between 7am and 9pm.
An interactive map is available on the Councils website showing the location of all gritting bins in the Highlands https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/20005/roads_and_pavements/594/grit_bins From this web link communities can apply for further bins under the Winter Resilience Community Aid scheme
The Director of Community Services, William Gilfillan said: "Following on from today's ice and snow and further wintry conditions forecast for the weekend it’s a good time to remind everyone what our gritting policy is.
"Maps showing the Primary, Secondary and Other routes for all areas of the Highlands are available on our website, as is our gritting policy.
"Although we have the supplies and resources in place to provide a full winter service we are also encouraging communities to come forward and apply for winter resilience assistance. Under this scheme we can provide local communities with salt in grit bins or heaps and other equipment to take action in their local areas that are important to them."
The area maps and full details of the gritting policy can be found by visiting www.highland.gov.uk/gritting
Very low temperatures are expected overnight and tomorrow. Please check on neighbours keeping an eye out for anyone that needs help and take extra precautions and care if travel is necessary.