Council receives much-needed grit

Published 15 Jan 2010 11:24 0 Comments

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Now that's what I call snow

AN extra 450 tonnes of grit have been delivered to the Borders this week to keep the region's roads open following the big freeze.

Blizzards brought life in the Borders to a virtual standstill last week as the area bore the brunt of the worst winter storms Scotland has seen in 50 years.

However, as gritters worked round the clock to keep motorists moving, the local authority's grit supplies reached crisis levels on Monday.

This week's much needed supplies were made available to them by the Scottish Government's Resilience Group.

It is also expected that another 1200 tonnes will be delivered by the Government over the next three days.

And 100 tonnes has also come in to the area from Perth and Kinross Council.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Scotland is experiencing the longest unbroken cold snap for many years.

"Before Christmas, the Scottish Government activated our Resilience unit, which has been in constant operation.

"As a Government, we have been working round-the-clock to ensure all levels of government and agencies across the country are working together to deliver essential services to the public.

"The Government has been working extremely closely with Borders Council to ensure they can continue with their gritting operations."

At an emergency press conference held at council headquarters in Newtown St Boswells on Tuesday, council chiefs stated that they only had 540 tonnes of salt left in its depots but it was using up to 800 tonnes of grit a day in their bid to clear roads and pavements.

It had been forced to use ash and gravel in some areas as supplies ran out.

However, now all main roads were cleared, priority would extend to minor and secondary routes.

Councillor David Parker, Leader of Scottish Borders Council, said: "I am absolutely delighted that the Scottish Government has made available these additional resources.

"We made representations over the weekend and were fortunate to receive a very swift response from Scottish Government, which has secured much needed extra salt stocks.

"This will allow the Council to deal more effectively with the effects of this winter period.

"In particular, I am pleased that we will be able to increase our efforts on our most rural roads throughout the Borders to alleviate the difficulties being faced by those who live in rural communities and have experienced some extremely difficult winter conditions."

Council workers have been clearing up to 1,000 tonnes of snow from each town in their bid to free up the region.

Roads boss Bruce Rutherford said: "It has required a great effort from everyone to clear the roads and pavements.

"Our thanks should also go out to motorists who have stayed off the roads to allow us time to clear them.

"Over 900 tonnes were removed from Greenlaw alone in one day, which shows the scale of the problem we have right across the Scottish Borders."

This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 15 Jan 10

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