Did you know?

• Salt: every year we use thousands of tonnes of salt. This year we expect our salt supplies to be around 35,000 tonnes as we enter the main winter season – five times the stock we held eight years ago. National salt shortages of the relatively recent past have shown that all councils have to be well prepared
• Gritting: 52% of the total road network will be gritted when snow or ice is forecast – including all A-class roads and important access roads (e.g. hospitals, fire stations, isolated communities). Typically, councils grit 48% of their networks, so we do more than many. You can now follow our gritters in real time on our website – along with the names of the gritters which were chosen by local school pupils – Gritting Routes
• Our resources: we have more than 150 winter road workers with access to our fleet of 39 gritters, one snowblower, 18 footpath tractors and five loaders to help them salt the roads, clear snow and keep roads and footpaths in as safe a condition as our resources permit. We also rely on the assistance of many colleagues in Land Services, and mobilise farmers and contractors to assist when necessary.

Councillor John Anderson, the chair of the council’s Community and Enterprise Resources Committee, said: “We hope this week’s winter awareness has been useful to everyone, whether you are a new or experienced driver, a pedestrian or anyone else who likes a wee reminder of what to expect and how to cope as the winter progresses.

“Hopefully it has been of value to all our residents and has reassured everyone that there are plenty of ways to make sure we are all ready and prepared for the Scottish weather over the next few months.

“I hope you are also reassured that our council teams are doing as much as they can to help with whatever the season has in store for us.”

For more information please see:

• Roads in Winter pages have our winter maintenance details as well as main gritting routes and grit bin locations
• Social media @SLCRoads and @SouthLanCouncil for 24-hour weather forecasts and information on when the gritters will be out