Tackling last winter’s big freeze cost council bosses more than £4 million twice the expected budget, it was revealed this week.
Last winter saw Angus Council overspend its £2.64 million budget by more than 50% as the cost of combating snow and ice breached the £4m barrier.
For 2103/2014 the budget figure has been set at £2.395 million but officials have emphasised the flexibility in place to accommodate the unpredictability of knowing just how bad the coming season will be.
The 2012/13 experience illustrated the extremes council crews can encounter, with the number of days there was fresh or lying snow in Angus ending up more than 20% higher than the previous record year.
Standby crews went on alert on October 18 and the last gritting was carried out on April 9. Infrastructure services committee councillors approved communities strategic director Alan McKeown’s plans for the coming winter.
“The provision of a winter service must take into account the vagaries of local winter weather, which can vary widely from year to year in both the severity and the occurrence of wintry conditions,” he said.
“In practice, resources have to be available to allow a measured response to an “average winter” and contingency plans made to take account of particularly abnormal mild or severe winters.”
Only twice in 17 years has the Angus winter roads spend come in under budget.
However, Mr McKeown said it was important to have a policy in place which allowed crews to make every effort to get on top of weather incidences as they occur.
“There are real benefits in dealing with snow as quickly as possible by making maximum use of available resources while conditions persist,” he said.
Among measures approved for 2013/14 are the replacement of a snowblower with a tractor attachment, staff savings through salt-saving measures and the roll-out of GPS.
There will also be an arrangement which will see three of the district’s auxiliary routes join the list tackled by agricultural contractors in more rural areas.
A plan to replace an Arbroath gritter with a six-wheel-drive machine has been put on hold but is being pursued for next year.
Angus forecasting will continue to be delivered through a consortium of councils in Fife, Perth and Kinross, Dundee City, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and Moray.
Mr McKeown added: “As in previous years, the intention is to provide the best level of service possible within the available budget.
“In practice, winter service operations are dictated by the prevailing weather and the response required in accordance with the council’s policy and agreed level of service.
“Notwithstanding the difficulty in predicting the duration, severity and geographical distribution of winter conditions, it is necessary to have a clear policy and an agreed level of service to allow the planning and preparation necessary for the delivery of a winter roads service.”