Any lingering thoughts that Angus had an easy winter have been blown away by a near £500,000 council overspend on road-clearing operations.
Having set aside £2.433 million to keep roads and paths clear, the authority watched the final bill for gritting operations rocket to £2.928 million.
The first gritters hit the road on October 23, and an unexpected cold snap meant they were kept on duty for one weekend beyond the planned park-up date of March 26.
Over that period almost 17,000 tonnes of salt was used. This was a higher than average figure due to rain diluting its effectiveness in a wet winter.
Council head of technical and property services Ian Cochrane said: “Although deemed by many as a mild but somewhat wet winter, the carriageway saw temperatures dip to minus figures overnight on numerous occasions, with day temperatures rising above zero.
“Routes frequently required re-treatment, with rain washing off the salt after treatment.
“Disruption due to snow was limited to a small number of days across the county, with additional impact in the glens, but still less disruption than that experienced to the west of Scotland.”
Comparison to the last 15 years in Angus revealed that 2014/15 had the equal fifth highest number of priority carriageway routes treated in the morning.
It had the fifth highest number of priority carriageway routes treated in the evening period.
The number of priority footway treatments was the equal fourth highest.
It had the equal third lowest number of days with temperatures below zero, and the fourth lowest number of days with fresh lying snow.
Mr Cochrane said: “The coldest temperature during the winter on the road network was recorded on December 29 at Ruthven crossroads at -7.9C.”
Angus Council does not have responsibility for the A90 running through the county, and the authority was not called upon by Bear Scotland to help out with clearing operations at any point during the winter.
“The overspend reflects the differential in the budget provision compared to the annually increasing costs of winter maintenance service delivery and the somewhat hypothetical cost of an ‘average’ winter,” said the roads chief.
Councillors have already taken the decision to beef up the 2015/16 winter maintenance budget to £2.663m.