Published: Tuesday, 12th January, 2010 10:24am

Extra salt diverted to Borders following treacherous roads warning

AN EXTRA 450 tonnes of grit was delivered to the Borders this week to help keep the region's roads open following the big freeze.

Blizzards brought life in the Borders to a virtual standstill last week as the area bore the brunt of the worst winter storms Scotland has seen in 50 years.

However, as gritters worked round the clock to keep motorists moving, the local authority's grit supplies reached the end of the road.

Council chiefs warned secondary roads across the region will not be salted and could be extremely dangerous.

They claimed they only had enough salt to keep the main roads free of snow and ice.

The warning came just 24 hours after it confirmed that major restrictions on travel had been lifted following the blizzards.

But, the Border Telegraph revealed that the Scottish Government diverted lorry loads of extra salt to Scottish Borders Council to keep the Borders open for business.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Scotland is experiencing the longest unbroken cold snap for many years.

"Before Christmas, the Scottish Government activated our Resilience unit, which has been in constant operation. As a Government, we have been working round-the-clock to ensure all levels of government and agencies across the country are working together to deliver essential services to the public.

"The Government has been working extremely closely with Borders Council to ensure they can continue with their gritting operations.

"Thanks to the Scottish Government's Resilience operation, Borders Council will receive 300 tonnes of salton Tuesday and a further 150 tonnes later in the week, to help the Council alleviate its salt stock shortage for treatment of local roads."

In addition to the 450 tonnes of salt which has been allocated to the Borders by the Scottish Government Resilience Group, it is also expected that another 1200 tonnes will be delivered by the Government over the next three days. And 100 tonnes has come in to the area from Perth and Kinross Council through mutual aid.

As a result of receiving these additional supplies, the Council said it would now be able to divert more resources to reopening rural roads and restocking grit bins.

At an emergency press conference held at council headquarters in Newtown St Boswells on Tuesday, roads chiefs revealed they only had 540 tonnes of salt left at the region's six depots. However, despite deciding to only grit main roads to conserve stock, they were using up to 800 tonnes each day.

Supplies were so short they were even forced to to grit the roads with ash and gravel in some areas.

Councillor David Parker, Leader of Scottish Borders Council, said: "I am absolutely delighted that the Scottish Government has made available these additional resources. We made representations over the weekend and were fortunate to receive a very swift response from Scottish Government, which has secured much needed extra salt stocks. This will allow the Council to deal more effectively with the effects of this winter period.

"In particular, I am pleased that we will be able to increase our efforts on our most rural roads throughout the Borders to alleviate the difficulties being faced by those who live in rural communities and have experienced some extremely difficult winter conditions."

He added: "I was also very pleased to receive additional support from Perth and Kinross Council, who very kindly supplied us with an additional 100 tonnes of salt. It is a very nice gesture that they have stepped in to assist us at this time and we are all very grateful to them.

"The staff of Scottish Borders Council are working above and beyond the call of duty to deal with the effects of this severe winter period and we have well developed plans in place to support the whole of the Borders in dealing with winter."

South of Scotland SNP MSP Christine Grahame revealed she made a special plea to party colleagues for more support for the Borders to cope with the big freeze and praised the two sides for working together.

Ms Grahame said: "Councillor Parker intimated to me that he had grave concerns about salt supplies and he asked me what could be done. I immediately spoke with John Swinney (Finance Minister), and of course the council made representations too, and the Borders now has more salt, which is really good news.

"As a result of a swift response from the Scottish Government the council will be able to deal with the effects of this particularly bad spell of weather more effectively."

She added: "This has been a huge task in difficult circumstances and I would again commend the council on getting all of the schools open and making sure people can travel safely to work."