Winter Service Policy

East Dunbartonshire Council (The Council) as Roads Authority has a statutory obligation under the provisions of Section 34 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, to take such steps as it considers
reasonable to prevent snow and ice, or indeed the consequences of any other weather condition, from endangering the safe passage of vehicular and pedestrian traffic over the Council’s public roads.

The intention of this duty is not that the Council will take immediate and simultaneous steps to clear/treat every road whenever ice formations or snow accumulations, floods, fallen trees or other impediments exist. To do so would be impossible and beyond the limit of the resources available and, indeed, this is recognised by the Courts.

To assist authorities in prioritising the treatment of their network, the UK Liaison Group (UKLG), made up of senior professionals, key stakeholders and industry experts, has developed the Well Managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practise.

Instead of providing specific guidance and recommendations, the code provides overarching principles, which must be considered by each authority in the development of their Winter Service. Through analysis of local strategies and objectives, a Winter service can be developed which will better meet the specific challenges of their authority.

Winter Service deals with regular, frequent and reasonably predictable occurrences such as low temperatures, ice and snow, as well as with exceptional events. Whilst the effects of climate change are likely to result in an increased frequency and intensity of severe winter events, these can be taken into account in Winter Service planning. Therefore, Winter Service can and should be subject to the same regime of planning, delivering, reviewing and improving as other aspects of the road’s maintenance regime.

The Council therefore prepares a plan of action, setting out how it intends to treat ice and snow in a reasonable and logical manner. In order to deal efficiently and effectively with Winter Service delivery, operations need to be planned in a systematic manner and it is essential that it has a policy and procedures, with clearly defined priorities. The objective is to provide a Winter Service that will permit the safe movement of all road users, including pedestrians, whilst minimising effects on the environment and the consequences of adverse weather conditions to the national and local economy and all related influences on inhabitants of the country.

The purpose of the Council’s Winter Service Policy is to set out the operational parameters and procedures that will ensure that the statutory obligations are achieved

This policy is for the adopted public road network only. All other Council-owned land and properties would be subject to the treatment procedures of the relevant responsible Service departments.

It is the aim of East Dunbartonshire Council to provide an efficient and effective Winter Service within the resources available, which meets the core objectives set out in the Well Managed Highway Infrastructure Code of Practice 2016 as well as Council strategies for transport, accessibility and network management.

The Winter Service will also contribute to wider Council strategic values and objectives for excellent customer service, National Climate change strategy, safety of road users and employees, serviceability of the road network and sustainability.

User needs and expectations are, and continue to be, a significant influence in determining the response to Winter conditions, which allow the safe movement of pedestrian and vehicular traffic appropriate to the prevailing weather conditions. It is important to continually communicate with our customers and provide clear guidance and information on both on our current treatment and levels of service.

This Policy seeks to ensure a customer-focused approach and to deliver customer satisfaction through demonstrating an efficient, effective and proportionate response to winter conditions.

Complying with statutory obligations and meeting road users’ needs for safety are vitally important to the successful delivery of the winter service.

As well as the safety of the public using the network, Winter Service operations will be conducted with due regard to the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work act 1974. Treatment plans, actions and working patterns will be designed to ensure that the Council provides the required and proportionate response to weather conditions and keeps delays, diversions and road closures to a minimum during adverse weather.

Maintaining availability and reliability of the road network is a key objective for Winter Service and one where user judgments of performance will be immediate rather than longer term. The service standards for Winter Service define the Overall Winter Period, the Core Winter Period, and the desired level of resilience and treatment routes.

Low temperatures and the formation of ice can cause serious damage to the fabric of running surfaces and accelerated damage of the network. Effective Winter Service can contribute to a reduction in whole life costs and minimise damage to the environment.costs and minimise damage to the environment.

The following section details the operational arrangements and procedures in delivering the Winter Service Policy.

The principal Winter Maintenance period covered will extend from midday Thursday 16 October 2025 to the morning of Thursday 9 April 2026. However, cover will be available, at short notice, outwith this period, should weather conditions dictate.

Before the onset of the Winter period, the Winter Maintenance Team will liaise with adjacent authorities to co-operate and co-ordinate response, including establishing contact points for Winter service operations and to determine the arrangements for the treatment of shared routes, including response, and treatment times. Such existing arrangements are tabled in Appendix A.

East Dunbartonshire Council is a member of the West of Scotland Local Authority (WoSLA) Weather Forecast Partnership with 12 other local authorities. In addition to providing a forum to discuss best practice and collaboration opportunities, the Partnership worked together to secure the services of a meteorological forecast supplier. By working together, we can ensure best value is obtained through the contract.

Other collaborative arrangements such as shared services, lead authority arrangements, collaborative service procurement, and sharing depots and salt stock and determining common treatment policies will be subject to ongoing review to provide an effective and value-for-money approach to increasing Winter service resilience. Collaborative working arrangements are coordinated both at area and at national levels, through the activation of the Strathclyde Emergencies Coordination Group (SECG) and the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) respectively, as may be required by specific circumstances at any given time. In addition, salt stock levels for all local authorities are monitored through the national Salt Monitoring Database. This national approach ensures any resource issues are highlighted as early as possible, and the sharing of available salt can be arranged quickly in response to shortages and severe weather events.

Over the course of the Summer period, the Winter Maintenance team will meet to review the performance over the previous winter and discuss any lessons learned. An action plan will be developed and these issues addressed prior to the following Winter period and the Winter Service Policy updated to reflect these changes. Any route additions are considered and added during the Summer period in review by the Team Leader and the Winter controllers.

As the new Winter season, approaches the Winter Team will liaise with Fleet Services. Fleet Services will carry out pre-Winter checks on all vehicles and plant required for Winter Service treatment and snow clearance. This check will include the calibration of the gritting controls.

In addition, the Winter Maintenance Team’s training and vocational qualifications and records are reviewed, and the relevant measures taken to ensure the appropriate level of competence is available and that all relevant Health and Safety procedures are in place prior to the onset of the Winter Service season.

Salt will be purchased prior to the onset of Winter and delivered to Broomhill Depot to ensure stocks are at appropriate levels throughout the Winter period and will be restocked as necessary.

At the beginning of the overall Winter period in early October, a full-scale trial of the Winter Service Policy will take place. This trial will include the driving of all specified primary routes, the fitting of snowploughs to vehicles, the setting of the controls to vary the rate of spread. The Winter Service Management Team will coordinate and control the trial and take the necessary actions to address any problems encountered prior to the start of the winter period.

The Winter Service Plan has taken into account the need for procedures to ensure effective communication of information for the public before and during both normal and severe winter conditions. Communication and publicity with the wider public and community will promote understanding and involvement in Winter maintenance. This provides opportunities and challenges, which will be positively addressed and provide an important opportunity to demonstrate understanding of users’ needs, and a strong service commitment.

It is of crucial importance that the Winter Service Policy and standards within it are widely available and understood by users and the community. As far as possible, network users will be made familiar with treatment routes, particularly in severe weather conditions via the web/Facebook/X. Additional and more frequent information will be supplied during periods of severe weather in line with the Council’s Severe Weather Communication and Escalation protocols. This will help in ensuring that expectations are realistic and consistent with the resources available as well as maintaining public safety.

Public awareness will be addressed by making available a copy of the complete Winter Service Policy including Winter maintenance routes and grit bin locations. In addition to this, should any member of the public make enquiries to the content of the plan, the relevant information will be provided in a manner, which suits. As an alternative to the full version, a non-technical summary of the Winter Service Plan will be widely available for users and the community, including a brief summary of the treated network, together with guidance on safe use of the network. Information will be reviewed annually and made available through the website.

Over the course of the Winter period, the Roads Network team will actively seek to improve the volume and nature of the information made available to the public through social media and via the Council website.

Full copies of this Winter Service Plan are made available to Elected Members and members of the Senior Management Team, Communications & Engagement team and other external organisations as well as being publicly available on the Council’s website.

During the winter period, the Duty Officer will coordinate the daily communication of information for the public. The Council website will be updated daily and regular social media posts will be published on Facebook and X to provide position statements of decisions taken, planned actions and operational responses. This will allow for continuity of service to be monitored, actions taken where it is considered appropriate and will help in ensuring that expectations are realistic and consistent with the resources available as well as maintaining public safety.

The Duty Officer will liaise directly with colleagues in the Customer Service and the Communications & Engagement teams during severe conditions who will be provided with updates on the actions and operational responses to allow the members of the public to be informed as best as possible.

The Winter Service Management team will establish effective working arrangements with local press via the Communications & Engagement team to enable the presentation of timely and accurate information and advice on network condition and use, network availability and risk of severe conditions such as snow and black ice as it is required.

During severe or prolonged winter events, the routine communications will continue as normal, however in addition to this, East Dunbartonshire Council has developed a Severe Weather Communication and Escalation Protocol.

The Duty Officer and Winter Service Management team will liaise directly with the Communications & Engagement team, Customer Service team and the Corporate Contingencies team to coordinate and facilitate the communication to the wider public.

This communication may include press, local radio or other broadcast media to enable the presentation of timely and accurate information and advice on network condition and use, including travel information, network availability and risk of severe conditions such as snow and black ice.

Briefing notes will be prepared and issued to Senior Managers and Elected Members to provide the necessary position statements and actions taken during the severe or prolonged conditions.

As part of this Severe Weather process Senior Management, along with the Winter Maintenance team will liaise with NHS, emergency services and the Health and Social Care Partnership to arrange for any necessary access to particularly vulnerable residents, such as those in need of medical treatment or outpatient care.

The meteorological forecasts and road warnings will be provided by Met desk. The following tools are used to assist in the preparation of the weather forecasts:

The Council has installed three road condition sensor stations at strategic points throughout the area. The sensors give a variety of information relating to actual road conditions such as:

• Road condition, i.e., wet, dry, frost or snow
• Residual salt
• Road surface temperature.

The location of the stations are:

• Strathblane Road at Haughhead, Lennoxtown
• Kilsyth Road at Shirva Road, Kirkintilloch
• Baljaffray Road, Bearsden.

The information received from the stations is transmitted to Met desk to be used in conjunction with other meteorological data collected separately to predict the weather conditions throughout the area.

Each day throughout the Winter Service period, MG shall prepare and transfer, via the Web, a 36-hour text forecast at the following times:

• 0600 hours
• 1200 hours
• 1800 hours

This text forecast shall cover the following 36-hour period. The forecast shall also include a 36-hour table showing forecast minimum road surface temperature each hour, times between which the road surface temperature will be at or below zero degree Celsius, comments on weather conditions and weather hazards likely to affect road conditions and start and end times of precipitation.

A two-to-ten-day text forecast covering a general geographical area of East Dunbartonshire will be issued by the Met desk on a daily basis.

The Council will take full advantage of decision support systems and services to enable timely, efficient and accurate decision-making. Decision support systems and management information, together with local experience, are the basis of effective Winter Service delivery. Decision support information will be used by the authority’s designated Winter Service Duty Officer in deciding the appropriate course of action that is required.

In order to enable the Duty Officer to decide on the appropriate course of action, there will be unlimited 24-hour direct access to the Duty Forecasters at Met desk throughout the Winter period.

During periods of adverse forecasts and where there is uncertainty about course of action required as a result of the forecast update, consultation should take place with trained and experienced members of staff and/or the Duty Forecaster at Met desk. Warning of heavy snow, heavy rain or severe gales will be issued whenever any of these are likely to cause widespread disruption to traffic on the road network. The Duty Forecaster at Met desk will, in the first instance, make contact with the ‘on call’ Duty Officer to advise of the warning. The Duty Officer will then refer to the Council’s weather forecast web page for a textual update of the warning. The Duty Officer will arrange the appropriate response to the predicted weather conditions.

Non-routine updates shall be prepared by the Duty Forecaster at Met desk before midnight whenever necessary. The Duty Forecaster shall telephone the Duty Officer two hours prior to the onset of changed conditions and follow-up with a non-routine update to the Council’s web page. The Duty Officer will arrange for the appropriate response to the predicted weather conditions.

If freezing conditions are forecast or are expected after rain, then salting operations will be delayed as long as possible to minimise the chance of the loss of salt through possible run-off.

If freezing conditions coincide with rain, then salting operations will commence as soon as practical and will continue until all primary routes are free of ice conditions.
 
In marginal conditions when the weather forecast does not indicate icy conditions, but the temperature is expected to fall below +1oC the patrol route will be carefully monitored by the patrol team. If significant areas of ice are identified, the patrol will commence treatment immediately and initiate call- out arrangements. In such circumstances, it may be necessary to deploy a patrol to monitor certain roads and weather conditions. The patrol will assess road conditions and salt the patrol route as instructed covering areas of seepage and known wet spots within the route see Table (A).
 

Detailed route planning for each aspect of Winter Service has been optimised to ensure economic, efficient and effective resource allocation. The operational and financial resources available for the Winter Service are limited and, accordingly, it is necessary to prioritise the treatment of both the carriageways and footways that make up the public road network. These priorities are shown in sections below.

Each of the carriageways in our network will be evaluated in line with the WMHI Code of Practice along with key strategic objectives to categories our treatment routes into four categories:

• Primary Routes
• Secondary Routes
• Patrol Routes
• Minimum Winter Network.

Primary Routes

Our primary routes will be assessed and prioritised against our hierarchy of inspection (as shown in table B) and locations of importance such as:

• Access to Fire and Rescue, Police and Ambulance and medical centres
• Public transport routes and access to stations, garages and depots
• Access to main industrial and commercial centres of key importance to the local economy
• Access to remote and rural areas
• Known problems areas such as steep gradients and flooding issues
• At least one access to local schools.

It is recognised that it may not be possible to treat all bus routes, shopping areas or medical centres as part of precautionary routes, however, such locations will be prioritised in any secondary operations.

It is intended, as far as is reasonably practicable, that during precautionary salting all primary routes will be treated before the start of the morning peak, i.e. before 7:30 am.

Secondary Routes

The remainder of the network may only be treated during prolonged periods of adverse weather of ice and snow to the extent that weather conditions permit available resources to be allocated to these other roads and that the treatment of the secondary routes would not be detrimental to the level of service of the primary routes. Treatment of the remainder of the network may take several days from the onset of prolonged severe weather or longer in exceptional circumstances. (See section 8 for further information.)

Patrol Route

When the weather forecaster only predicts icy conditions above certain heights, or in certain localities, then only the roads at these locations will be treated. It should be noted that in these circumstances the actual conditions of the road network within the patrol route will be monitored by the patrol and, if necessary, additional resources will be deployed.

Minimum Winter Resilience Routes

During prolonged periods of extreme or prolonged weather conditions or when resources or salt balances can be affected, it may be necessary to concentrate only on essential treatment routes. These routes will include roads of key strategic importance.

On receiving a snow warning, the following procedure should be carried out:

• Fix ploughs to all vehicles if significant accumulations or drifting are expected.
• Pre-treat the spreading network in accordance with Table (C) above immediately prior to snow falling to prevent snow setting on the road surface.
• Start ploughing as soon as snow becomes deep enough to plough, i.e. approximately 50mm in depth.
• After ploughing, treat un-compacted snow with salt at 10 g/m2 per 25mm depth of snow and re- plough to remove slush.
• When prolonged falls are forecast it will be found useful to continuously plough from the onset of snow to prevent build up and to prevent compaction by traffic. Such ploughing can be combined with simultaneous salting at 20-40 g/m2 so that a wet base is maintained. However, once snow depths of 120 mm have been reached, or when tackling snowdrifts or where vehicles are operating on gradients, it may be desirable to continue ploughing without salting. The weight of a salt load will aid vehicle traction when ploughing.
• After ploughing, a further treatment of salt is required at the rate of 10 g/m2 for every 25 mm depth of un-compacted snow for each degree centigrade that the surface temperature is below freezing (see 8 below). As snow melts under the action of salt, keep ploughing to remove slush.
• If snow has become compacted and the temperature is low (-5oC or below) neat salt must not be used, as it will accumulate in the form of salt solution in depressions and produce a very uneven and slippery running surface. In these circumstances, spreading of grit is advised.
• A 50/50 grit/salt mix can be used on hard-packed snow. Grit is not required on un-compacted snow, as the action of salt will cause the snow to melt allowing the slush to be removed easily by ploughs.
• Very low temperatures do not usually follow immediately after a snowfall and it is therefore very important to apply salt early, plough early, salt again and get the resultant slush off the road before compaction by traffic.

When it is determined that it is necessary to treat the footway network, all primary footways will be treated before 08.30 hrs, as far as is reasonably practicable and subject to prevailing weather conditions and available resources. Footways and footpaths tend to retain more residual deposits of road salt and therefore it is not always necessary to treat them every time there is a prediction of the onset of freezing conditions. However, on each occasion, an assessment will be made of the level of residual salt and when appropriate the necessary treatment will be carried out.
 
The treatment of footways and footpaths may have to be locally curtailed, due to obstructions caused by wheelie-bins, on collection days and parked cars obstructing the footway. This situation will be most acute where mini-tractor equipment is used to treat footways. Due to the random nature of this eventuality, the Council will only return once the wheelie-bins / parked cars have been removed from the footways to carry out the required treatment.

Primary footways, as detailed in Table (E) below, are primarily town centres and pedestrian precincts and footways adjacent to main facilities or at busy thoroughfares within the urban environment. This is in contrast to the primary routes for carriageways, detailed in Table (C and D), which tend to be roads that essentially link the centres of population and distribute traffic within the district.

Notes on the interpretation of the Policy for Footways and Footpaths

• Within any Priority, categories of footway/footpath will be suspended from treatment in reverse order if, and for as long as conditions so dictate and whilst the principal routes are being dealt with. Every effort will be made to avoid this eventuality
• On occasions, during adverse weather conditions, only the highest of higher priority routes will be treated. There may be times when only Priority F1A routes and the most important pedestrian links, within the F1B list, will be treated
• In snow conditions it is imperative that an early start is made to prevent hard packing by pedestrians. Authorisation, by the Duty Manager, for salt and/or grit will be required if packing occurs. Easily accessed sources of grit may have to be established.
• In pedestrian areas, where gritting equipment can take access, it should do so with due care
• Pedestrian areas, within shopping centres, which gritting equipment cannot reach or where street furniture screens part of the footway, only 2m widths, outside each frontage and limited crisscrossing tracks will receive treatment
• Notwithstanding the descriptions given within each priority, a footway route would usually be provided in preference to that of a footpath, even though it may be of greater length
• The connecting footway must be used, by the public, on a regular and predicable basis. Public buildings are those providing a primary and intensive service to the public during the majority of the day. This would include hospitals, health centres, police stations, libraries, local authority offices and post offices.

Cycle routes are considered to include cycle lanes on carriageways, cycle route adjacent to carriageways on carriageway provision with cycle symbols and shared-use facilities. It is recognised that there are specific risks associated with the use of bicycles over the winter period.     
Whilst it will not be possible to include all designated cycle routes within our primary treatments, particularly any remote from the carriageway, each location on the public road network will be examined and assessed for possible inclusion. Where it is not possible to treat designated cycle routes, it is important that alternative treated parts of the road network be available.

Special provision will be given for the treatment of any segregated cycle route where treatment of the adjacent carriageway is unlikely to provide any de-icing.

At locations which are not currently on primary routes or at strategic locations where there are known issues, such as gradients and sharp bends, grit bins will be placed and provided for use by the public. These bins will be regularly serviced throughout the Winter and will remain at these locations as far as reasonably practicable. In extreme conditions, or when there is the need to conserve salt stock levels, grit bins may require to be stocked using either a salt-sand mix or in some occasions sharp sand only, as detailed in section Contingency planning for severe weather or resource shortages -Severe Weather and Salt Shortages.

In addition to the grit bins which are strategically placed throughout East Dunbartonshire, members of the public may also uplift small quantities of grit (up to 50kg) free of charge from either Broomhill Depot or alternative uplift location(s) which may be established from time to time dependent on prevailing circumstances. The public will be responsible for supplying a suitable container.

Local businesses will not be permitted to uplift grit from these locations

Requests for bins will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Should residents feel that a grit bin is required in a specific location one can be requested via the Council’s website at www.eastdunbarton.gov. uk All requests will be evaluated against the criteria shown in Appendix E and included in the application form and installed if there is free resource is available.

The Council is responsible for the maintenance of a number of public car parks across the area. Whilst it would not be practical to treat all of these locations whenever inclement weather is predicted, these locations will be treated on a priority basis dependant on level of use, weather forecasts and availability of resources.

The Duty Officer will liaise with Streetscene team members regarding programmed treatment plans and weather forecasts each day over the Winter period and to allow decision makers within the service to direct resources to these areas when required.

Priority will be given to the treatment of car parks which service key strategic transport hubs across the authority. The treatment of any additional car park locations will be prioritised based on expected level of use, predicted weather forecast and availability of additional resources.

The response time, which is defined as the period between decisions being taken to begin treatment and vehicles leaving the depot, is targeted at no more than one and a half hours. This applies both within and outside normal working hours; however, this could be exceeded given the prevailing weather conditions and availability of resources.

Treatment time, which is defined as the period between vehicles leaving the depot and the completion of treatment on all priority routes, is adopted based on risk assessment of local circumstances that provide for the completion of pre-treatment before ice forming. It should, however, be recognised that treatment times might vary in different weather conditions although this time should not exceed three hours in normal circumstances.

The information contained within this treatment plan is for the treatment of the public road network only. Treatment of other Council-owned areas will be dictated by the individual plans for the service responsible however the Duty Officer will liaise with those departments regarding the expected weather forecast where required.

This plan considers and has adopted local service standards for resilience of the Winter Service in terms of number of days’ continuous severe conditions salting on a defined Minimum Winter Network throughout the Overall Winter Period.

The Code of Practice suggests resilience levels should be established to providesix days’ resilience for salt and other resources, including equipment, drivers and fuel. The Council’s desired minimum stock level for salt will however be based on 12 days resilience as per Table (F) below. This approach is based on the ability to deliver a defined Winter Service should the Council hold or have guaranteed access to sufficient salt, gritting vehicles and drivers and other essential resources to deal with severe Winter weather conditions.

In addition, salt levels across all local authorities are monitored nationally through Traffic Scotland Salt Level Monitoring database. Each authority must update the current balance and usage each week to ensure suitable salt levels are being maintained and to provide an opportunity for any sharing of resources in severe weather events.

To provide additional resilience within the Roads Network Team drivers, the use of route guidance has also been introduced. This will ensure accuracy and consistency within the treatment of each route should additional resources be required to assist with the treatment of the carriageway network.

It is an important for all service planning that we consider how we will address issues in the event of severe weather.

Contingency Winter Service planning for severe and prolonged weather conditions or salt shortages includes salting a Minimum Winter Network whereby priority will be given to a Minimum Winter Network route. This Minimum Winter Network is a subset of the primary treatment network and will provide a minimum essential service to the public, including links to the strategic network, access to key facilities and other transport needs.

In such circumstances, it should be noted that all the available resources will be concentrating on keeping the minimum Winter network cleared and therefore no timescales will be given for the clearance of lower priority routes.

Given the scale of financial and other resources involved in delivering the Winter Service it is not reasonable either to provide the service on all parts of the network or ensure running surfaces are kept free of ice or snow at all times, even on the treated parts of the network. The treatment of these will be as per the Minimum Winter Network salting routes and treatment times will be extended. Close liaison will be maintained with the Police and during such conditions. Additional resources will be deployed on a needs basis using other Council departments and external contractors as appropriate.

Consideration will also be given to the conservation of salt stocks during such circumstances, either due to prolonged periods of severe weather conditions or where there is a risk to salt supplies. The Duty Officer and Winter Service Management team will aim to maintain salt stock between the levels of 3,000 tonnes and 4,500 tonnes until the end of January where it will be allowed to reduce to a minimum level of 1,500 tonnes at the end of the winter period. This will be monitored and managed day-to-day
to maintain this level for the duration of these months. Should salt stocks deplete below the level of 3,000 tonnes, and where appropriate sand/salt mixes and salt alternatives need to be used, this will be determined on a risk assessment approach by the Duty Officer in relation to salt stocks, within the
defined thresholds detailed in Table (F) below. As the salt stock falls below the specified levels, the level of treatment will reduce to maintain a minimum Winter network for the delivery of the Winter Service.

The Winter Maintenance Management team will collate and coordinate a stand-by rota covering Duty Officers, Team Coordinators and Operatives for the Winter Service period. The stand-by period will commence early October and continue through to the Mid of April, however, this period may be altered should conditions dictate.

The operational response will be supported through the wider Roads and Environment Services Structure as and when required with a view to ensuring: -

• Employees availability throughout defined risk periods.
• The necessity for the treatment operations to be co-ordinated and supervised.
• Resources and equipment availability for treating carriageways, footways and cycle routes
• Appropriate resources available for dealing with vehicle breakdowns, problems with fuel supply and communications failure.
• Resource availability for the storage, delivery and loading of salt.

These will be made in consideration with the following:-

• Implications of Drivers’ Hours Regulations.
• Extent and nature of double-manning and driver support.
• Shift system arrangements.  
• Provision for holidays and sickness.

In respect of the above considerations, the following will apply:-

• All carriageway salting routes will be single-manned.
• During snow clearing operations, however, all salting routes will be double-manned.
• All footway salting routes will be double-manned i.e., tractor and pick-up drivers.
• Should additional footway crews be required for hand casting operations then an assessment will be made based on available resources and prevailing weather conditions.

Where resources difficulties are identified efforts will be first made to seek assistance from across the wider Roads and Environment Service as well as across the other Council Services as a whole. Where skill levels and departmental service requirements are unable to assist the Roads Network Team will engage with external suppliers to locate the additional operatives required to assist with the Winter treatment.    

If, after all other areas of support are exhausted and resource levels drop below those required to continue delivering the full Winter Service, the available resources will be directed to those areas of highest priority, based on the risk posed to the road user.

Ultimately, whilst the treatments to both the carriageway and footway will depend very much on the skill set available with the resources – such as carriageways requiring HGV drivers - treatments will be prioritised as shown in Table(G) below.

It has been held reasonable by the courts that footways are of a lower priority than carriageways on the basis that a skidding vehicle poses a greater risk than that of pedestrians. This is because they can identify and respond to snow and ice issues and can take precautionary measures to address these more easily than a vehicle, it is important therefore that priority is given to our Winter Resilience Routes and Primary Gritting Routes.

The Secondary Carriageway Routes (as described in Table C) are primarily smaller residential roads with no public transport routes and lower gradients than those included in the Primary Routes and pose a smaller risk as vehicles generally only have to travel short distances on untreated roads to reach a treated part of the network.

The Primary Footway Routes provide (as described in Table E) includes routes to schools, main shopping areas, town centres and main facilities and pose a higher risk than the treatment of our Secondary Routes due to the higher volume of use.

In periods of especially severe  weather, temporary road closures may be necessary. In determining the optimum location, consideration should be given to the availability of alternative routes and, if necessary, holding areas.

When snow conditions have rendered a route unsafe for use, where possible, it will be closed to all traffic. The closure of a road in these circumstances must only be carried out on the instruction of the Police.

Accordingly, close liaison must be maintained with them to confirm any decision to close a route. Routes closed by Police instruction must only be re-opened on Police instruction.
 
The Roads and Environment Lead must be informed as soon as possible of any roads closed by the prevailing weather conditions and must also be consulted on any diversion route necessitated as a result of such a closure. On such instances, the Severe Weather Communication and Escalation protocol would be evoked to provide updates to all key stakeholders. As part of this protocol, details of the closure will be made available to the public via the Council’s website and social media.

The prioritisation of the snow clearing from closed roads will be determined using the hierarchy of inspection and in partnership with the Health and Social Care partnership and the Emergency services to ensure vulnerable users can be accessed. Particular focus will also be given to ensure that rural communities are not cut off.     
 
It will be the responsibility of the Police to liaise with adjacent Police authorities on any closures and with the assistance of Communications & Engagement team updates will be periodically issued with regards to road closures.

• Rostered stand-by personnel will respond to emergency callouts and proceed to deal with any Winter maintenance emergency, as instructed. Where prolonged overnight operations require stand- by personnel to be relieved then any subsequent treatment will require relief operatives to provide assistance. The ability of the Roads and Environment Service to deliver Winter Service is inevitably limited by the availability of suitably-trained and experienced employees.     
• During continuous operations, in particularly adverse conditions, the working hours of the Duty Personnel should be closely monitored.
• A general exemption from Driving Regulations is permitted to deal with Winter Service emergencies. All time, in excess of the normal daily driving limits, must however be spent dealing with emergency situations.
• On occasion, second men may be required when undertaking plough operations.

During the Christmas and New Year Public Holidays, when priority route treatment will be carried out on a callout only basis, unless weather conditions warrant, there will be no pre-arranged stand-to or patrols. The Roads and Land Manager will circulate details in early December of the rostering arrangements for the Christmas and New Year period.

Should any weather event reach such a level as to prevent other Council departments carrying out their normal day-to-day duties, these additional resources will be directed to assist with the Council’s gritting operations of key strategic locations.

Fleet Services will carry out pre-winter checks on all vehicles and plant required for Winter Service treatment as per section 3.4. If necessary, further mid-season checks and equipment calibration will be arranged. All vehicles and plant are to be routinely maintained throughout the Winter Service period.Priority is to be given to repairs to Winter Service equipment during the Winter period by our Council’s Fleet Service.

A list of the plant available for the Winter Service is given in Appendix B of this document.

Throughout East Dunbartonshire, there may be locations where drainage problems exist resulting in wet areas on the public roads. Unfortunately, it is not possible to permanently resolve all of these
prior to the onset of the overall Winter period(s) and thus, until such time as drainage repairs can be undertaken, arrangements will be made to locate ice warning and flooding signs at wet spots of which the Council is aware of and which are deemed to pose a significant risk.

Rock salt is the prime material for dealing with ice and snow on roads but can have environmental consequences. Rock salt by its nature is hydroscopic and requires moisture to allow it to work effectively. It can adversely affect vegetation, pollute watercourses and leave a residue on footways. It can also damage the road structure, bridges and structures, utility apparatus and vehicles. However, used responsibly it can have minimal environmental impact. In the interests of sustainability, therefore only the minimum of salt will be used to deal with the prevailing conditions.

The variable nature of the conditions during the Winter Service period makes it very difficult to specify the exact rate of salt spread. Notwithstanding, the rates of spread detailed in the Table (A) should be used wherever possible.

The Council does have a responsibility in the event of heavy rainfall or flooding and in the event of any flood alerts being issued by SEPA, to put in place measures to minimise the impact to the road network.

On such occasions the Winter Maintenance Team will arrange for the existing road gullies to be cleaned at any known trouble areas prior to expected conditions and, when possible, for any leaf fall to be cleaned.

If weather is expected to be particularly severe, then floodgates located at the locations below may be erected and road closure put in place to protect road users. The Severe Weather protocol will be activated at these times to ensure road users are aware of the dangers and any restrictions in place.

Whilst the sole responsibility for protection of private property in the event of a flood lies with individual owners and not the Council or any other Agency, the Council will support the local community in preparing for and dealing with floodwaters with the supply of sandbags. The Council will also support and encourage local communities and businesses to prepare their own flood risk action plan to deal with emergencies likely to affect them.

The deployment of sandbags will be based on the following priorities:

1. To prevent loss of life or serious injury
2. Maintaining access for emergency services
3. Protecting vital facilities within the community, i.e. emergency service facilities; publicly owned old peoples’ establishments; etc.
4. Protection of East Dunbartonshire Council’s community properties, such as schools and other public buildings, if appropriate
5. Protection of residential Property within the area
6. Protection of business/commercial property within the area

If a flood event is anticipated, sandbags will be delivered to those locations deemed ‘at risk’ of being affected by floodwater and East Dunbartonshire Council will maintain a register of these locations.
During flooding events the Roads Service can be stretched to try and help at various locations throughout the council area, therefore the Council will encourage residents to pick up sandbags for their own use at the Broomhill depot. Even if the location is deemed “at risk” there is no guarantee can be given that sandbags will be delivered within a specific timescale.

Requests for provision of sandbags can be made to the Council on a telephone number published by the Council – 0300 123 4510. The Emergency Duty Officer or the Emergency Planning Officer will authorise distribution of sandbags in accordance with the priorities above.

The property owner/occupier is responsible for placing sandbags and providing other preventative measures. Sandbags are regarded as short-term, temporary solution to the problem of flooding. The use of Floodwater Protection Schemes for low-level flood events of limited extent is recommended. For extensive areas of inundation, of significant scale, the Council may seek to promote a Flood Prevention (Mitigation) Scheme.

The use of sandbags is not favoured as a long-term solution for the following reasons:

• Filled sandbags are heavy and awkward to lift. Care is required when placing them as injury could result.
• Sandbags have a limited life, as they degrade in sunlight.
• In use, sandbags may become contaminated and be a hazard to health. Contaminated sandbags must be disposed of in a responsible manner by the householder not the Council.
• It is recommended that sandbags are not re-used.

East Dunbartonshire Council’s Roads Service will maintain a stock of sandbags to meet emergency needs and will work closely with other agencies during a flood event.

• The Council will retain 500 filled sandbags at its Broomhill Depot in Kirkintilloch.
• The Council will maintain a stockholding of 3000 unfilled sandbags, with sufficient sand for filling them. 
• Should circumstances require these additional sandbags to be filled, resources will be allocated based on the operational priorities at that time.

The distribution of sandbags will be the sole responsibility of the Roads Duty Manager who will allocate sandbags in accordance with the priorities of this policy and knowledge of other operational requirements.

Throughout the Winter Service period, the authority will continually monitor performance during service delivery and respond effectively to changing conditions or network incidents. Comprehensive and accurate records should be kept of all Winter Service activity, including timing and nature of all decisions, the information on which they were based, and the nature and timing of all treatment, including routes salted, quantities of salt used, times of operations, resources utilised (plant and labour), any road closures, additional resources used and detail of any other significant problems encountered.

Roads Network Operations will be responsible for preparing and retaining the following records for a minimum period of five years:

• MG forecasts including all updates.
• Decisions taken based on MG forecasts.
• Decisions taken based on other reports such as Police or Call Centre Reports.
• Maximum and minimum air temperatures recorded during any action.
• Details and timings of routes salted.

Records from the Council’s ice detection stations are held by the service provider.

Any major incidents should be reported as soon as practically possible to the Roads and Transportation Lead. The Duty Officer will ensure, with the support of the wider team, the production and retention of these reports

Immediately following the completion of snow clearance operations, priority should be given to the clearance of gullies and off lets to ensure that melt water from snow on verges and islands or central reservations can quickly drain away.

The clearance activity will be prioritised in accordance with primary routes and known trouble spots, such as “at risk of flooding” routes. However, it may be especially difficult to prevent melt water which is running across the carriageway from freezing and several applications of salt may be necessary. 

It will also be necessary to inspect the network to ensure that any damage is dealt with either as a defect or as programmed maintenance as appropriate and as resources permit. The inspection should be treated as a special safety inspection and deal with the items usually included. Special attention should be given to the routes treated and the following items:

• Removal of accumulations of grit from running surfaces and drainage channels.
•  Inspection and clearance of all bridges, culverts and drainage systems liable to flooding.
• Inspection for frost effects and any damage caused by Winter Service equipment.
• Check and replenish salt stocks in depots and grit bins
• Inspect, clean, lubricate, check and repair all vehicles and plant.

In addition, it will be important to debrief all personnel involved to ensure that their experience and observations are recorded. These should be used to inform the Annual Service Review and contribute to the process of continuous improvement.

All aspects of the Winter Service Policy, including service delivery arrangements, should be reviewed annually to take account of changing circumstances. All vehicles, plant, fuel provision, equipment and maintenance arrangements should be checked annually and in accordance with manufacturers’ requirements to ensure that any necessary action can be taken to ensure full operational service status prior to the Winter Service season. This should include checking the calibration of all de-icing equipment and spreaders. Authorities should review the administrative and management arrangements for Winter Service annually. This should include the use of all support services.

The Annual Review will include an analysis on whether service delivery meets the Winter Service Policy standards and objectives. It will also take account of developments with regards to the impact of climate change. Service efficiency improvements such as route optimisation will also be considered.

Any requests for a grit bin should meet the following criteria and an application form can be downloaded from the Gritting Webpage.   

• The proposed location will be on a public road or footpath.
  Any location which has a steep gradient or topographical feature which merits consideration. Typically, gradients greater than 1:17.
• The proposed location must service and be of benefit to several properties (applications will not normally be considered where only an individual property is being serviced)
• The proposed location must be accessible for cleaning and filling the grit bin.
• Siting of a grit bin must be agreed by at least 6 residents. This must include those residents directly affected i.e. access or frontage of the new bin location.
• There is no alternative provision of a grit bin within 300m of the requested location.
• Requested location does not form part of a primary gritting route.

East Dunbartonshire Council reserves the right to remove a grit bin at any time for whatever reason. The Council will maintain the grit bins, i.e. refill, clean the bins of refuse and repair or replace damaged bins as resources permit.

Grit bins will remain in position all year, only in exceptional cases where it is established that they are being subjected to vandalism would consideration be given to removing them, outwith the Winter period.

In addition to the grit bins which are strategically placed throughout East Dunbartonshire, members of the public may also uplift small quantities of grit (up to 50kg) free of charge from Broomhill Depot, Broomhill Industrial Estate, Kilsyth Road, Kirkintilloch, G66 1TF

The public will be responsible for supplying a suitable container. Local businesses will not be permitted to uplift grit from these locations.