Council reassures West Lothian people on grit supplies

Jan 7 2010 by Marjorie Kerr, West Lothian Courier

Council reassures West Lothian people on grit supplies

WEST Lothian Council have reassured local people that the county has good stocks of grit to use on the area’s roads.

The comment follows concerns over a shortage which saw Fife run out of salt on Monday.

West Lothian Council say that although 10,000 tonnes of grit have been used in the past 12 days, more than was spread during the whole winter period in previous years, there is still a good supply available.

A delivery of salt was received on Monday, taking reserves to 1400 tonnes, with further supplies on order.

The authority say their staff have worked round-the-clock to keep roads as clear as possible.

A council spokesman commented: “Our staff have worked extremely hard around the clock on a shift basis from December 17 tackling the very difficult conditions.

“To allow our roads teams the opportunity to focus on the primary routes, volunteer staff have been used for residential areas, which include additional resources from Nets and Street Cleansing, starting at 5am in the morning and working through to 5pm.

“In addition volunteers have been kept out until 10pm on a rota basis to deal with emergency situations in residential areas.

“The number of cars in residential streets increases in the evenings as people are at home causing access issues, also when streets are ploughed the snow has to be moved somewhere and this causes more issues as the moved snow also blocks drives.”

The authority say teams have worked outwith normal hours, including public holidays to grit secondary routes, residential areas and fill grit bins.

A West Lothian Council spokesperson said: “Like many other councils, our priority is to ensure main routes are kept open to enable people to travel to work, the shops and access other services.

“We are currently using every resource available to us to enable us to continue to clear snow in residential areas.

“We would like to thank residents for their patience and understanding during this period of abnormally severe weather.”

Council leader Peter Johnston added: “I’d like to especially thank our dedicated staff who have worked round the clock in extremely difficult conditions to try and ensure the streets are as clear as possible.

"It has taken a huge effort to keep the main roads clear and we are making inroads at clearing residential areas as conditions allow.

“We also have teams dealing with emergency and priority cases to make sure those that need extra help get it.

“Given that this is thought to be the worst spell of weather to hit West Lothian in 25 years, I would hope residents would appreciate that we are doing all we can under very difficult conditions.

"We are already hearing anecdotes of communities getting together to clear paths, dig out cars and help vulnerable neighbours, and it’s heart warming to hear the West Lothian community are rallying round in difficult circumstances for us all.”