Gritting crews treated primary routes twice last night and once this morning.
For the rest of today we will be ploughing - not gritting - secondary routes.
We will patrol primary routes later in the day in the expectation of snow flurries overnight.
A decision on whether to re-treat main routes will be taken later.
Staff from our grounds maintenance service have joined staff from Amey Roads North Lanarkshire to clear and treat minor roads in areas of high ground.
We remain on salt conservation. Fresh supplies are en route and we have had some deliveries.
We are expecting deliveries of salt throughout the day today.
For the moment we are continuing to treat according to our conservation policy. Further updates will be provided as soon as possible.
The following information answers many of the questions we have been asked since the severe weather started.
Q. Why has the council implemented conservation?
A. Weather conditions across the UK have until now meant supplies have been unable to reach us. We took the decision to implement conservation so supplies would not run out.
Q. Why can't you access supplies from elsewhere?
A. We have received some deliveries from other suppliers, however there is a limited number of salt suppliers in the UK. They all have to meet contractual obligations to other parties before they can consider requests from elsewhere. Demand across the UK is extremely high, so there is only a very limited amount of salt available.
Q. Will you run out of salt?
A. We expect deliveries throughout the day today (5 January) and will continue to salt according to our conservation policy to ensure we have enough to keep the main roads open and provide assistance to the emergency services when it is requested.
Q. Why has my road not been gritted?
A. Because of the long-term adverse weather, gritting crews have had to prioritise treatment of the primary network as well as requests from emergency services and funeral directors. Where there have been breaks in the weather, we have treated secondary routes and minor routes if possible.
We appreciate there are a number of minor routes that still have not been treated, and these will be dealt with as soon as we are able.
Q. Will you be able to refill salt bins?
A. Salt bins will be filled as soon as our deliveries come in.
Q. When will you be able to end your conservation policy?
A. Once salt supplies are transferring normally we will be able to return to our policy of giving priority to primary routes and footpaths, followed by secondary and other routes. However, in severely cold conditions like those we have seen recently we may have to keep prioritising primary routes before treating other roads.
Q. Why didn't you have more salt in stock?
A. On December 18 we had 7750 tonnes of salt in our depots. That was a substantial increase on last year, when we stocked 6000 tonnes, and is the maximum we can hold.
Q. Is funding and resources affecting delivery of service?
A. No. There is a budget for winter maintenance within the roads maintenance budget, and there is a contingency built in for snow events. A prolonged spell of adverse weather will require additional resources, which will be managed from existing budgets.
We anticipate having 25 snowplough/gritting units operational at any one time to deal with our 25 primary route. There are additional vehicles available to deal with breakdowns and repairs. Our partners at Amey Roads have sufficient drivers to operate round-the-clock shifts and this resource has been supplemented by grounds maintenance and cleansing staff.
Q. What is the current weather forecast?
A. It is forecast to be cold until well into the second week of January.
Q. How are you placed in relation to other local authorities?
A. All local authorities are in a similar position and all are experiencing problems with salt supplies.
For information and advice about driving and walking in freezing conditions, and to find out more about our winter maintenance policy, use the contacts and links on the right.
