Questions over Moray Council's road gritting policy

MORAY Council has reassured a local politician that it has not slipped up on gritting efforts after a flurry of complaints over icy conditions in the last fortnight.

Moray MP Douglas Ross called into question the council's road gritting policy after recent collisions and slips on untreated roads. He said he was satisfied that unique weather conditions had "thwarted" council workers' efforts – but urged the local authority to review its prioritisation of routes system.

Mr Ross said he was approached by several motorists and pedestrians after icy conditions affected roads and pavements in Moray over the last two weeks. He said that in several cases surfaces remained untreated, resulting in some minor collisions and accidental slips on pavement ice.

The Conservative MP said: "After being contacted by many concerned constituents about the state of the roads and pavements due to icy conditions over the last couple of weeks, I made contact with Moray Council to ascertain why this situation was allowed to develop – with some areas not gritted at all.

"The morning of Tuesday, December 17, was particularly bad. The roads maintenance manager with Moray Council advised me that the council are responsible for maintaining a road network of almost 1000 miles in length and went on to say that it is impossible to treat every location at the same time. Therefore each road has been assigned a priority for gritting (from one to four)."

Given an adverse weather forecast, the council will consider pre-treating priority one roads to prevent the formation of ice, or to make the clearing of snow or ice from the surface of the road less difficult. The priority one network is covered by 13 gritting routes, which treat almost 40% of the total road network in Moray.

Mr Ross added: "Due to the weather forecast received at lunchtime on Monday, December 16, arrangements were made to carry out an earlier than normal pre-treatment of all priority one routes which commenced early in the afternoon to ensure commuter traffic could travel on treated roads.

"Unfortunately during, and immediately following treatment, a combination of rain, slush and snow on the high roads fell, which was significantly higher intensity than forecast. This contributed to salt wash-off and led to the formation of ice on sub-zero road surfaces overnight.

"The council also informed me that they planned to carry out a morning treatment from 6am on priority one routes and to treat identified footpaths with available resources. However, a band of rain and snow fell between 5am and 9am on Tuesday morning (December 17). This landed on already icy roads before and during the time they were receiving the morning treatment.

"Following on from this priority one treatment, the council diverted resources onto the secondary routes for the remainder of the day."

Mr Ross said it appeared the adverse underfoot conditions "were created by some unique weather conditions that thwarted the efforts of the gritters deployed".

He added: "The teams employed to keep our roads and pavements clear of snow and ice do a great job in difficult conditions. We have already seen one gritter lorry go off the road this winter, which shows the dangers these drivers are working in and they deserve all our thanks and credit, but I want to be sure the policies they are working to are fit for purpose.

"While I’m reassured that Moray Council prepare for such conditions, I hope they will also review the recent complaints that have been received to see if the prioritisation of routes is adequate."

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.