Aberdeen City Council’s Winter Maintenance Plan has been published. The document is very similar to last year’s retaining the same priority system for the clearance of roads and footways. The full plan can be found here and the progress of gritters can be tracked here.

There are over 900 grit bins in residential areas across the city. As in previous years the council is not accepting any requests for additional grit bins. You can locate your nearest one on this map.

There will be a contact number on all grit bins which can be called when it requires topping up.

Applications for the one tonne salt bag will be opening up in about two weeks and these too can now be topped up if they start running low. Please keep checking this link or the local press for details.

Liberal Democrat Operations Spokesman Steve Delaney said, “This winter is likely be a challenging one, regardless of of its severity with the unknown additional issues the covid-19 pandemic may show up”.

“The Liberal Democrats have for some years advocated making resources available to community groups so that we can all do our bit to help keep footways within our own streets clear of snow and ice”.

“I am therefore pleased to see the continuation of the large community grit bags in 20 locations across the city as well as the one tonne community salt bags. The only issue with these community salt bags was the difficulty experiences in distributing contents to community members. That’s why I welcome the distribution of smaller bags with these for residents to fill up and take away”.

“This does not in any way absolve the council’s of its responsibility to keep all main routes clear and to do are much as they can on other routes subject to prevailing weather conditions. It’s more about all of us who are able to do so, keeping our own little patch cleared and helping out those who are less able”.

“With the council likely to be under additional pressures this year due to covid-19 we’re all going to need to pull together to help each other and in particular to look out for elderly and disabled neighbours who may find themselves struggling if we’re hit by a particularly bad winter”.