South Ayrshire road authorites stocked up for big chill

Dec 16 2011 by Stuart Wilson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

THEY battle round the clock to keep our winter roads safe.

And the team behind the wheels of South Ayrshire’s gritters are stocked up and ready for another assault.

Last year’s record-breaking temperature plummet tested the resolve of a hard hit public.

And with many lessons learned, the authorities insist they’re better prepared than ever to cope with this year’s icy blast.

Jim Jamieson is the depot manager at the council’s grit plant just outside Coylton.

He said: “The preparation for this winter began as far back as July.

“We’ve been taking delivery of salt supplies ever since then so that we’re ready for the worst case scenario.

“It’s been shipped over from Ireland at regular intervals so that we have the necessary stockpiles.

“We now have roughly 8000 tonnes on standby so that when the weather takes a turn for the worse, we are ready.”

Last year saw Britain gripped by its coldest snap in more than 100 years, with gritting teams fighting a losing battle in many parts of the country.

And South Ayrshire chiefs insist their staff are often given a thankess task over the winter months when trying to clear the roads.

Team leader Janice Kelly explained: “The staff are in seven days a week and will miss their Christmas dinner with the family to make sure the roads are kept safe.

“It can be tough when people phone to complain about gritters not being out, because we know the team is working every minute of the day.

“We’ve won awards over the past year for our service and were ranked sixth in the whole of Britain for last last year’s winter road maintenance.

“And this year, we’ve installed a great electronic recording system which tracks all the gritters and shows how much salt they’re laying down.

“It means that if anyone does phone to complain, we can give them a definitive answer at the click of a button to say when a gritter was last on that road.”

And Jim added: “Hopefully things won’t be quite as bad this year, but I’ve seen it all with the weather so I’ve learned to expect anything.”