Moray Council gritters are winter ready

MORAY Council are preparing for winter – way before snow is set to fall over the north of Scotland.

At the start of October, the council's gritter drivers started a six month rotation and are preparing for the worst of the weather over Christmas.

Gritter driver Graham Kelman told the Northern Scot: "Our aim is to keep the road safe for everybody. My advice would be to drive safely, and, if the weather is bad, only drive if it's necessary."

The worst roads, according to Mr Kelman, are the Dava Way, the Dufftown to Rothes road and the Cabrach – due a mix of their height and remoteness.

This year, the length of the routes covered by drivers has increased. This will reduce the number of vehicles needed by the council and make carbon and fuel savings. 13 gritters are currently situated at six Moray depots, with a total of 25 weather stations.

The council have have 9681 tonnes of salt stockpiled, with a further 7200 available to order. Last winter, from October 2018 to April 2019, which was fairly mild, saw 11,868 tonnes used.

But salt isn't only used when it's cold and a lot of work goes into getting ahead of the weather, as Mark Atherton, who works in the control room, explained.

"I think one of the biggest misconceptions from the public is that they see us gritting when it's above freezing and think 'what's the point?', he said.

"But it's the ground temperature that matters, and the ground and air temperature can be quite different.

"We have a forecast which allows us to see 36 hours ahead so we can plan."

A typical morning for the team sees morning gritting start at 6am and finish at 9.30pm, with reviews of the weather at noon and 5pm. Only emergency work will take place through the night.

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