Perthshire residents have blasted the council for not being prepared for icy weather that led to treacherous walking and driving conditions on Monday.
Sub-zero temperatures combined with rain overnight, plus a bank holiday coming right after the weekend, added up to “lethal” experiences on streets and pavements across the county.
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Social media was awash with angry comments from people fearful of a fall and essential workers negotiating a difficult course to get to work.
Fingers pointed at a lack of gritting, particularly around residential areas of Perth.
“Pavements are lethal,” posted a person from Perth first thing on Monday. “Please be careful when out and about, it took me an hour instead of usual 15 minutes to walk to my local Co-op due to extremely icy pavements. Why are pavements and side roads not being gritted?”
Over 100 people added their own comments in response.
“Its a b****y joke, not seen one pavement getting gritted,” was one furious outcry. “I have just walked from my front door to my car, you can see it is like a sheet of ice,” claimed another.
“Same here in Scone, lethal,” reported the next person.
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People living in rural settlements also woke up to reports of treacherous pavements and empty gritting bins.
Clayre Brain from Pitlochry told the PA that main roads are “usually fine up this way” as Bear Scotland is responsible for the A9.
However, she added: “The town is usually OK but the residential areas of Pitlochry are not great.
“They seem to have a little tractor gritter that comes out now and again to do the roads and pavements but it isn’t all the time.”
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She explained her mother lived in Stanley where one grit bin appeared to have been removed and the other one was “stuffed with rubbish”.
In Dunning, Arantza Corrigall (49) said she could not get out to walk her dog Max.
Arantza told the PA: “The pavements have been icy but our road particularly gets really bad.
“There is a box at Dunning Park which is practically empty and won’t do for the whole street and it is on a hill.
“But there are other areas in the village which have been terrible since before New Year.
“It is an ongoing issue, but I think with COVID restrictions and going for walks being the only thing we are allowed to do, the council should have planned things better if they do not want people to get injured.
“We all have pets that need walking too. We can’t say, ‘well you just stay in.’
“I’m not that old but it is impossible this morning to leave the house. I need to walk on to the road as I can’t walk all the way down to the village on the pavement which is also icy.”
Scottish Conservative council member for Strathtay Councillor Ian James defended the situation, urging people to stop blaming the staff who he explained were doing their best.
He said: “Perth and Kinross Council is responsible for gritting around 910km of Perth and Kinross roads. We have set aside £3.715 million in this year’s budgets.
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“Our dedicated team of gritters have been out doing what they do every winter but can’t be outside your house every time you look out of your window.
“For more rural areas, we have farmers helping us out in severe weather conditions. We also have 40 push along gritters available for use by the community.
“We live in Scotland where we expect cold weather and snow and icy conditions. Don’t blame our hard working teams, adjust your timings and habits accordingly.”
A Perth and Kinross Council spokesperson said: “Perth and Kinross Council gritter crews have been working through the night to treat main A-class roads and Perth bus routes.
“Priority carriageways were pre-gritted on Sunday afternoon but further rainfall and sub-zero road and footway temperatures led to widespread icy conditions across our network overnight.
“We have mobilised additional operational support from Tayside Contracts and PKC Operations to assist with gritting of the roads and footway network early this morning.
“Our staff, and those of Tayside Contracts, are working hard to clear roads and footways in extremely challenging conditions.
“With freezing temperatures forecast for the rest of the day, conditions will remain difficult on many carriageway and footway routes and we would ask residents to ensure that extra time is allowed for any essential journeys being undertaken.”
