Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure boss has said communication is the most vital tool in coping with another severe winter.
His comments came as councillors discussed the recent bad spells of weather in December and, most recently, the Beast from the East in February.
The committee was discussing a report which revealed that the council projected it had spent an extra £3 million on top of its £4.3 million budget.
It emerged in January that the council’s winter maintenance budget had been used up with the local authority having to use a reserve fund to make up the shortfall.
The report also noted that the authority used 61,000 tonnes of salt to tackle the winter roads, with more than 70,000 hours of labour.
Philip McKay, head of roads, said it was the worst winter for snow and ice the area had endured for nine years.
Stephen Archer, the authority’s head of infrastructure, said: “It’s about message management and management of expectation.
“That’s going to be really important aspects of how we approach future winters.
“You can’t have 24/7 ice-free roads and pavements.
“At a certain point you shouldn’t be going out when the weather is particularly severe and the weather we had before Christmas was particularly bad.
“It caused a lot of difficulty but, at the same time, it was only for two weeks. It’s getting the message out there.”
The committee approved a further in-depth review of how to cope with weather “events”.
Among the aspects this will cover will be community wardens to help in low priority areas, increased focus on snow clearing as well as ice prevention, reviewing the availability of council resources and also looking at the way long-term forecasts are used.
