Gritting regime slammed as freeze leads to spate of accidents on ice
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FURIOUS residents have demanded action after a week-long deep freeze left roads and pavements like "ice rinks" and "death traps" – even outside local schools.
Critics are angry that key routes like footpaths around schools have not been cleared of ice, and a community councillor claimed Highland Council’s winter road gritting policy was putting lives at risk.
Council leader Margaret Davidson said the conditions made it difficult to grit effectively in some areas but she said she appreciated how difficult it was for people to get around and pledged to review the winter maintenance service "as soon as possible", in order to "make any necessary changes within the budget we have".
A car was left lying on its roof yesterday just north of the Tore roundabout on the A9 and Bear Scotland, the trunk road manager, had to respond to concerns that even some parts of the A96 to Nairn and the A9 north of Tore were not well-treated. They said they were working "round the clock".
And social media was a hive of harrowing stories.
A distressed mother posted pictures of an icy playground saying her seven-year-old daughter had split her chin open after falling at Nairn’s Millbank Primary. The school declined to comment.
Veteran Culloden and Ardersier councillor Roddy Balfour had to go to A&E with a gash the size of a 50p piece on the back of his head after slipping in the council’s untreated car park at the city’s Glenurquhart Road HQ.
A pensioner broke his hip trying to get out of his neighbourhood, and elderly and disabled people were stuck in their homes with some having to rely on a Tesco home delivery. In one of the most traumatic accounts, a woman turned up at A&E with a broken arm, leg and nose.
Other critics vented fury over blue bins going unemptied because the icy streets were a no-go area for the dustbin lorries.
And pedestrians across the area said they were having to walk in busy main roads to avoid compacted ice on the treacherous pavements.
Inverness Courier reader Susan MacDonald got in touch to say: "I was passing cyclists at Eastfield today and I saw two fall off on the ice. Pedestrians were on Abban Street and Carse Road holding onto fences as pavements were sheet ice. Wheelchair users were on the road along with dog walkers. The council’s reply was that it was being carried out according to policy. Could I suggest their policy is unrealistic and not working?"
Culcabock and Drakies community councillor Richard Paxton said someone could end up dead or critically injured.
"I know the council has to make cutbacks but even the bus routes weren’t done until a couple of days afterwards.
"It’s coming to a point where somebody is going to get killed. Do we really have to wait for that to happen before something is done?"
The city’s central SNP councillor Richard Laird said he was told footpaths around schools would be done, "but those around Merkinch Primary School and the High School haven’t".
He was concerned that the gritting regime seemed to miss important areas and said he would take that up with the council’s management.
And Inverness South Independent councillor Ken Gowans said he would like to see more money spent on winter maintenance but the reality was that the council was facing cuts in its budget so it was difficult to see how it could afford to do this.
A council spokeswoman said: "We have the longest road network of any council in Scotland and unfortunately it is not possible to treat every road at the same time. That’s why we have a priority system to treat the areas in greatest need first."
A NUMBER of high priority gritting routes were downgraded in 2015 when councillors took the controversial decision reclassify the status of more than 25 roads as part of region-wide plans to save £440,000.
In Inverness these included Longman Drive, Fairfield Road, Harrowden Road, Laurel Avenue, Telford Gardens and Burn Brae at Culloden.
The council’s leader Margaret Davidson has made a commitment to review the winter maintenance service "as soon as possible", in order to "make any necessary changes within the budget we have".
She said: "For the last two years we have protected the winter maintenance budget and we have also increased investment in roads maintenance – so there hasn’t been a reduction in services.
"There has been a lot of work during this cold snap but it has been freeze, thaw, freeze thaw and every time it rains the grit is washed away then the rain water freezes over so I appreciate how difficult getting around has been.
"We are getting complaints about a lack of weekend gritting and also about the pavements not being gritted so we need to look at that and decide if we need to do more."
