Councillors have approved a £2.7 million winter roads budget to keep Angus moving.
The local authority said it would “endeavour to use the resources available for winter maintenance in the most efficient, effective and economic way”.
Ian Cochrane, head of Technical and Property Services, said the system would give priority to the more important and heavily trafficked sections of the road network.
He said: “The policy has proved to be robust and effective, and is unchanged from previous years.
“In order to make best use of available resources it is necessary to operate a priority system for the treatment of carriageways and footways.
“Strategic routes including important bus routes, important commuter routes, roads serving hospitals, ambulance stations, fire stations, shopping centres, most schools, and major industrial centres are classed as ‘priority routes’ and, accordingly, are given a higher level of service and priority over other ‘non-priority’ roads.
“In the same way footways are classed as priority or non-priority taking into account the level of pedestrian usage.”
The provision of a winter service will take into account the vagaries of local winter weather which can vary widely from year to year.
Mr Cochrane said the “unpredictable nature of the climate” requires a pragmatic and reactive approach to the provision of resources.
He said: “Whilst the fixed costs are broadly independent of the number of treatment activities occasioned by the weather conditions and can be estimated with some confidence, the variable costs are dependent on the prevailing weather conditions.”
Last winter pre-wetted salt was introduced mainly on priority routes and salt savings are being monitored.
The council continues to look to see if the priority routes can be split between coastal and inland which may allow savings to be made in terms of some routes not being run on marginal nights with the coasts being above freezing.
This work has not yet been concluded.
The council also investigated if reductions to certain priority routes could be made to reduce timescales but “vehicle volumes did not allow a business case to be made”.
Self-help measures will be encouraged but the council will not provide winter maintenance on private roads or prospective public roads.
The council will however carry out winter maintenance on effectively adopted public roads.
