Transport bosses dig up solution to snow … shovels and DIY

TRANSPORT chiefs have come up with a controversial and novel solution to keeping Scotland on the move during the heavy snowfalls this winter – DIY.

They are planning to hand out “self-help kits” of snow shovels, grit bins and salt spreaders to residents living in some of the country’s smallest communities – and to ask residents to keep their own pavements clear near main roads in their areas.

Residents who agree to take part in the Transport Scotland initiative will even be supplied with high visibility vests and gloves and woollen hats to help them keep warm as they brave the Arctic blasts.

But yesterday the innovative scheme was greeted with a decidedly mixed response by community leaders in the small Aberdeenshire villages of Crimond and Boddam where residents of the Buchan communities have already been approached about taking part in a pilot scheme later this year.

Sam Coull, the Independent councillor for Peterhead South and Cruden, said it should be up to local authorities to keep pavements clear of snow.

He said: “Who in their right minds is going to go out there with service buses and lorries going past? If it’s going to be like last winter, it will be a never ending job with slush getting on the pavement.

“Where does it end? Do they issue a lawn mower and ask people to cut the grass verges? People will be rightly asking why they are paying tax.”

Duncan Milne, the chairman of Foveran Community Council, said he would be in favour of the scheme. He said: “During the last hard winter, the idea of self help did come up. We would be very much in favour of something like this. Where I live the roads were usually passable but it was noticeable the pavements were the major problem.”

Boddam resident and mother-of-two, Ann-Marie Duncan, 30, said: “I remember last year it took the men in my street a whole night to clear the snow themselves. It is very tiring.

“I think it could help some people and I think it would help Bear Scotland focus on other areas if people could make a start on their streets.

“But if this was to happen I think we should have to pay less council tax. There would have to be a reduction in costs. It has to work both ways.”

Neighbour Valerie Wright, 68, a retired quality controller at a fish factory, said: “It’s a stupid idea. Able-bodied people will be at work during the day.”

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “Following last winter – one of the most severe on record – we have been working hard with all of our partners, including our road operating company in the north-east, Bear, to sharpen our response as we approach this coming winter.

“This includes how we can better deliver services like road and path clearing and treatment. During last winter many local communities wanted to play their part.

“We will monitor and evaluate this initiative following winter. The winter kits are designed to supplement the winter service on the trunk roads and not replace it.”