Controversial plans to slash gritting of key roads in the Highlands this winter could be rubber-stamped next week.
Politicians claimed last night that the cost-cutting move to downgrade dozens of roads in the Inverness and Lochaber areas would raise “huge safety issues”.
With temperatures beginning to plummet in recent weeks, even local authority leader Margaret Davidson admitted that she was “not comfortable” and “still concerned” by the impact of the plans.
But the head of the council’s new minority administration said it had its hands tied by previously-agreed savings.
Councillors in Lochaber and Inverness refused to bacl plans to downgrade the priority of several roads last month because of a lack of detail on how they would be affected.
Revised proposals will go before specially convened meetings of area committees for both of the regions on Thursday.
Some roads could be spared the downgrade – but many remain.
The authority is attempting to save £46.3million by 2019.
Last December, the council’s previous administration controversially agreed to save £480,000 by 2017 from its winter maintenance budget – including cutting 12 gritters and 12 staff over the period.
At the time this was agreed the Highlands had 111 gritters and three spares, with two already cut from the Inverness fleet this year.
Mrs Davidson said she was “not comfortable” with the proposals but that the authority had no choice.
“We are where we are and we are dealing with the consequences of the decision reached last December,” she said.
“We need to have something in place for this winter and we need to hope that we can manage the situation so there’s not too much of a reduction in the quality of our service.”
She said that a full review of winter maintenance would be carried out in the new year, with one option involving starting gritting one hour earlier at 5am.
Mrs Davidson, independent councillor for Aird and Loch Ness, added that gritting annually “tops the list” for concerns raised by members of the public.
Highlands and Islands MSP Rhoda Grant said she understood the council would have to make “difficult decisions” because of its budget position.
However, she added: “There is a huge safety issue. People need to use the roads to get to their work, in emergency situations.
“The council obviously needs to make cuts and that’s not their fault but people will be concerned about changes to gritting the roads.”
She gave an example of the death of unborn baby, a paramedic and a midwife in December 1993 after an ambulance crashed on black ice near Invermoriston on the A887.
The road had not been gritted and Mrs Grant said that was something that should “never be repeated”.
The council currently has three categories for prioritising gritting, with primary routes being main distributor roads with regular bus services.
Secondary routes linking smaller communities to the primary network, while minor roads are classed as “other” and will only be treated after all other routes.
In Inverness, Lochalsh Road and Telford Road would both be downgraded from primary to secondary, with 24 roads to be dropped from secondary to other.
However, eight routes which were due to be downgraded have been spared after council officials discussed the plans with local councillors at ward meetings.
A number of other roads would also be downgraded in Lochaber.
Independent Lochaber councillor Ben Thompson led efforts to defer the original decision because of concerns about a lack of detail in the original report.
He said that there was more detail to be considered in the latest update but said it was “inevitable” that there would be complaints.
He added: “Obviously we would love to be able to grit every road and provide that service but that’s not the position we’re going to be in.
“I think it’s inevitable that there will be complaints, whatever we do.”
Inverness Central councillor Donnie Kerr, whose ward covers Telford Road and Lochalsh Road which are to be downgraded, said: “Basically my concern is that if we have a bad winter then we might not have the staff or the equipment to deal with it.”