Last Tuesday another of the items under discussion at the N,B&S area committee meeting was the Winter Maintenance plan. You can see this item on the webcast page here and it starts at 1.24.27 into the video.
This observer was struck by something Laurie had to say at 1.34.27
“A couple of years ago one of the lorries got stuck on the Grantown Road, they had to get another one down from Grantown to pull it out, one of the reasons was that it had summer tyres on. I would like an assurance that we have actually have winter tyres or snow tyres on the lorries this time. Cost was given as the reason but we do need the vehicles in shape.”
A reply came from the official shown in the video at 1.40.32
“Snow tyres, some of our fleet has winter tyres. John tells me that the High areas in Badenoch and Strathspey have winter tyres on. Nairn we don’t need them so much so they’re summer tyres. So we may have problems we just have to deal with that and get vehicles redeployed perhaps if there is a severe problem.”
Obviously the Roads and Transport folk at Highland Council are experts and money is tight but as Laurie suggests, would it be prudent to find the money and give all these important vehicles winter tyres?
3 comments:
its a wonder laurie isn't tyred out with all his meetings etc
narook
Winter tyres aren't just about getting through snow and ice, when fitted it means that the vehicle will also stop in poor conditions in a shorter distance. Surely the crews who work in these vehicles deserve the best safety we can offer them, as they're often working in hostile conditions in the winter months
I hope whoever took the decision not to have winter tyres carried out the appropriate risk assessments regarding Health and Safety?
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