Westmeath County Council is urging people to get ready for possible chaos on winter roads, by planning ahead within communities and residents associations.
“If the winter is very severe we will rely on communities to get involved and help their neighbours. We can’t get to all areas quickly, though we will get there eventually,” the director of services for roads said.
Grit will be available in local communities if the winter is severe and not all school roads will be covered by the council’s gritting plan because they don’t have the resources.
Barry Kehoe said drivers must drive “defensively”, and safely and in accordance with road conditions.
He said the council welcomes the involvement of residents associations and communities to keep roads safe and ice-free and they should contact their area engineer.
Answering a query from Cllr Paddy Hill, he said that while he couldn’t give a blanket guarantee that a court wouldn’t decide an individual is liable for an accident on a road he or she treated, he didn’t think liability is an issue for clearing the road in front of premises.
He told elected members that the county’s roads plan for winter is “to maintain major roads as safe and free as possible”, emphasising that there can be no guarantees, but the council will do the best it can.
Each night, 462km of roads will be gritted, using 100 tonnes of grit, dispersed by nine gritters, with roads cleared by the council’s 12 snow ploughs and “strategic footpaths” will also be gritted.
The cost per night is in the region of €11,000.
While there was a spike of up to 76 nights of gritting in the winters of 2009/2010, 2010/2011, he is hoping this year will return to the average of just 34 nights.
The council has a stock of 1,200 tonnes of salt for the coming winter, but Mr Kehoe insisted it will be used sparingly, as any further salt will have to be purchased using the council’s limited funds.
Communications with the public will also be a priority, Mr Kehoe said.
Replying to a suggestion by Cllr Tom Allen, he said the council is reluctant to put up signage on roads which are not routinely gritted, saying the signs might give the wrong impression that other roads are treated and there could be no guarantees that they are.
Councillors urged the executive to be more proactive in communicating with the public and Cllr Mick Dollard wondered if there will be enough indoor and outdoor staff to cope with a severe winter.
County manager Danny McLoughlin said the council is in the process of creating a three year plan to balance staff numbers, taking efficiency, capacity, and affordability into consideration.
