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The Highland Council staff


Feb82000

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Gritting on snow is practically a waste of time as all that happens is the next time they pass they just clear it all off the road along with the snow it was laid on.....or, it gets washed off the roads along with any melt water.

Below -7 or -8 then salt is also a practical waste of time because it has little effect...it can in fact have a negative effect because the colder ice gets, the more traction starts to improve...tyres effectively freezing against the ice and giving grip...so anything which promotes only slight melt causes more harm than good.

I'm sure our resident Chemistry Teacher will be along at some point to highlight any flaws in the above statement/s :lol:

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Actually....i thought it was B.E.A.R Scotland that was supposed to do the gritting on the Highlands, or is it just main routes they do?

Trunk roads are contracted to bear by Scottish Parliament. Councils are responsible for the rest but they prioritise bus routes and town centres.

Remember as well that if you have any defined trunk roads in your area then it's not the Council that have responsibility. The Scottish Government have responsibility for assigning the contract for that - think it's still BEAR.

The council prioritises the roads they have and will only get round to minor roads once priority routes have been done. Sometimes they are fighting a losing battle and, as has been mentioned previously, with budget pressures they have limited resources to work with. Most councils will supply a grit bin to streets free of charge and keep it filled if asked so that local residents can reduce the effects of bad weather on their bit of the pavement/road. Speak to your Roads Department regarding that. I was out myself last night gritting my pavement and driveway from the council grit bin that's in our street (we have 2 bins in our small street - one either end).

The other thing to bear in mind is that northern councils have a disproportionate financial burden for winter maintenance in comparison to more southern Scottish councils i.e. snow up north more frequent than down here in tropical central Scotland. Highland, Moray, etc will have to find the budget out of the same relative level of funding that other councils have.

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in aviemore a few residential roads are getting done,but its fairly random,its not as if theres any shops or public services on these roads,which is unfair,we all pay our council tax so all deserve the same service,ok i could understand if they couldnt afford to do any residential streets thats fine but to pick "random" ones is out of order

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in aviemore a few residential roads are getting done,but its fairly random,its not as if theres any shops or public services on these roads,which is unfair,we all pay our council tax so all deserve the same service,ok i could understand if they couldnt afford to do any residential streets thats fine but to pick "random" ones is out of order

So if they cant clear them all dont clear any :)

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This is the longest really cold spell that we have had for several years. What we need to ask is whether we want money to be spent on staff and snow clearing equipment just in case we get a spell like this every 5 - 10 years or so, or whether we want to spend Council money on Schools and looking after the elderly all the time. For the resources they have, I think the Council staff do a great job keeping the main routes clear but obviously they can't do all the residential streets.

If you don't like it then the answer is to stand for election at the next Council election on a platform of raising council taxes to pay for stuff which will be used a few days a year at most. Or, you can move to Latvia where it sounds they have things sorted or to London where you can use the underground.

In the meantime, buy a decent pair of boots and a snow shovel and keep an eye out for the elderly neighbours. Oh, and clear your bloody windscreen and the 6 inches of snow from the roof of your car before you set off so it doesn't slide off when you brake. That's a real hazard that you can't blame the Council for.

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Can't really argue, the Council must be doing their best.....it's just that Councils generally are rather **** at prioritising things.

The one area that has bothered me is the car park at the big Tescos in Sneck. No attempt seems to have been made to clear it - I presume no-one wants the responsibility, but if the shops want business they should get together and do something. I was stuck outside Burger King the other day, wheels just spinning uselessly, I had no choice but to go for a bacon double-cheeseburger and hope for a thaw...

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Shocking, the gritters were in our street yesterday and they still haven't touched my drive,what do i pay council tax for!!!!

Blame Maggie and her band of Tories. They're the ones who broke up the Councils Direct Labour Organisation (the roads department) and put the work out to the private sector. Those old council workers would easily chuck some salt on your drive as they went past.

Was reminicing with a couple of colleagues about such things. Once upon a time, back when you and I can remember, councils had fleets of real snowploughs and many people on standby for all the tasks that had to be carried out when real snow fell. They done the major roads, they done the streets they could get into. Now all the trunk roads and major roads are done by Bear and Scotland Transerve. These roads have, considering the amount of snowfall over the last ten days, been dealt with very well. Roads have been closed for short periods not, as in days gone by because they couldn't be cleared, but because of jack-knifing trucks and other accidents caused by the modern persons in a rush.

All council workers in Scotland, other that those on emergency standby are on holiday just now. Forced to take holidays they dont really want. Those who are working are concentrating on keeping the main bus routes in towns and cities open so nobody's doing the other streets.

Hielandee will probably remember, in times gone by, when the people living in the streets would be out with their shovels clearing the footpaths and the roads and helping each other. Times when salt bins were frequently filled for the use of those people. When kids would make a small fortune clearing the paths for neighbours. When fowks would put chains on their tyres and socks over their wellies to stop slipping. Times when there were no budget worries for such things because central government provided the funds. Do we expect too much nowadays for what we are willing to pay? To keep fleets of snow clearing vehicles in storage for 49 weeks a year is a very big cost. To keep squads of people on standby just in case is a very big cost. We dont get the hard winters we used to so can the cost be justified? I think not.

And while delving into the memory banks, and for those who dont remember real snow, I and a fair few other rail passengers once spent three days huddled on a train that had become stuck on the Rannoch Moor. No heat, food and water dropped in by helicopter. Drifts of twenty feet plus along the line in both directions. I also remember a fleet of snowblowers being hurriedly shipped in from some foriegn land to help re-open the A9 and A96 that was affected by twenty foot+ drifts. Had they not done so the poor fowks of Sneck would have starved. Ahhhh!!! them were the days.

Finally, for those who dont know, all trunk roads in Scotland, Traffic Scotland, the government body responsible for roads and rail etc, award contracts for the maintenance of such. At the moment the Highlands and West Scotland are covered by Scotland Transerve, a subsidiary of Balfour Beattie, looking after 3300km of road whilst BEAR Scotland, a subsidiary of Ennstone and their partners, cover the East side of the country from Inverness, though not the A9, to the borders. Dont know how many miles BEAR cover cos my brother doesn't work for them. Minor roads are still the responsibility of local authorities.

Edited by Alex MacLeod
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All council workers in Scotland, other that those on emergency standby are on holiday just now. Forced to take holidays they dont really want. Those who are working are concentrating on keeping the main bus routes in towns and cities open so nobody's doing the other streets.

I'm not on holiday :)

Our council doesn't give us any time off other than the actual public holiday days. I've been in this week grafting away as usual for the tax payers. My previous colleagues at a nearby authority are in the same boat. It must just be the northern lot that get loads of holidays over the festive period! If I remember right from my time at one of the northern authorities, you didn't get many of the public holidays and instead used them in between Christmas and New Year so that the office could shut down.

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All council workers in Scotland, other that those on emergency standby are on holiday just now. Forced to take holidays they dont really want. Those who are working are concentrating on keeping the main bus routes in towns and cities open so nobody's doing the other streets.

I'm not on holiday :)

Our council doesn't give us any time off other than the actual public holiday days. I've been in this week grafting away as usual for the tax payers. My previous colleagues at a nearby authority are in the same boat. It must just be the northern lot that get loads of holidays over the festive period! If I remember right from my time at one of the northern authorities, you didn't get many of the public holidays and instead used them in between Christmas and New Year so that the office could shut down.

My understanding, from friends working for a couple of authorities in Tayside, Aberdeenshire and Highland, is that they take two weeks of their annual leave in the summer and part of the other two weeks + public holidays is taken at festive period so as, like you say, to shut down offices and save on cost.

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In the meantime, buy a decent pair of boots and a snow shovel and keep an eye out for the elderly neighbours. Oh, and clear your bloody windscreen and the 6 inches of snow from the roof of your car before you set off so it doesn't slide off when you brake. That's a real hazard that you can't blame the Council for.

I agree 100% it is really starting to get on my nerves when I see cars out and the driver has only cleared the windows. I just want to get out and shout at them! It makes me so angry!

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I think the main problem here is that Aberdeen City Council's winter maintenance budget is about 10p and this has lasted so long that I think they would still be struggling had they not cut the budget. Aberdeenshire Council seem to be on top of things slightly more.

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Population of Greater London is well over 12 million. Population of Scotland around 5 million.

Slight exhageration there....its actually about 7.5 million. Reagardless of population....how many miles of road is there in London versus the whole of scotland?

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I think the main problem here is that Aberdeen City Council's winter maintenance budget is about 10p

From the way things seem to have been going in Aberdeen, I think their total budget to cover EVERYTHING is about 10p.

I think its round about 15p to cover everything with 10p of that going towards "winter maintenance" the other 5p going towards putting electronic traffic signs up everywhere possible.

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I agree about the state of the roads, between 24/12/09 and today I have travelled from Aberdeen to Sneck, Sneck to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to Fort William (via Glasgow), FW to Sneck and back to Aberdeen and by far the Sneck roads are the worst. I do however appreciate that its had the worst weather. We followed two snow ploughs today along the A96 and one was undoing the good work the one in front was doing! Very frustrating!

BTW I work for Aberdeen City Council, I've been off since 5pm on 23rd Dec and only used 3 days holidays because the office was closed!!

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I agree about the state of the roads, between 24/12/09 and today I have travelled from Aberdeen to Sneck, Sneck to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to Fort William (via Glasgow), FW to Sneck and back to Aberdeen and by far the Sneck roads are the worst. I do however appreciate that its had the worst weather. We followed two snow ploughs today along the A96 and one was undoing the good work the one in front was doing! Very frustrating!

BTW I work for Aberdeen City Council, I've been off since 5pm on 23rd Dec and only used 3 days holidays because the office was closed!!

Why go Edinburgh - Fort via glasgow. Much safer, more scenic and less miles to go M9 and Callander.

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Mr M, I agree with you entirely however my boyfriend waned me to meet his Dad so I didn't really get much choice!

Also I wonder if the screen wash would have frozen if we'd gone that way??? It stopped working around Luss so if you were on the A82 on the 30th and saw some crazy passenger randomly throwing screenwash over their window it was probably me!!

Edited by Caleyjag
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