Given the snap of bad weather, here is information people might find useful and interesting regarding gritting and snow clearance.

More details – including a map of priority routes for gritting, the location of grit boxes and how to apply for a grit box – are available at https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/…/main…/winter-maintenance/

Grit is also available at no cost from recycling centres.

In light of comments on Facebook elsewhere I asked roads officers for confirmation that gritters were out locally according to plan. I was told that the priority gritting routes were treated as per the plan, so in Portlethen in particular the route received treatment from both 15:30 on Wednesday afternoon and 05:40 on Thursday morning. Council staff put on as much salt as they could for the pre-treatment at 15:40, and had to go out at that time, due to an early freeze time, but as this was 12-15 hours or so before the morning treatment, and following snow showers through the night, this would all have but disappeared (washed off) before the rush hour. Early morning traffic, on the roads before the morning treatment, compacted the snow on the road surface and with traffic moving slowly it took longer for the salt to take effect.

The priority routes are in essence the roads used by the services buses. If the snow and icy conditions condition the gritters then move on to the other roads.

In the meantime residents are welcome to use grit from local grit boxes (or collected from the recycling centres). However in my view the council policy on the provision of council grit boxes in communities is far too restrictive. I argued the case when the policy was reviewed not so long ago, but for whatever reason I did not receive support from fellow councillors. There should be more grit boxes so residents can help themselves and others.

I am pressing for a further review of the policy.