Council chiefs have denied being caught out by Monday morning’s Arctic blast which caused rush hour misery for people throughout Perth and Kinross.
The sudden return of snow saw Perth grind to virtual gridlock during the normal school run period as vehicles struggled to cope with the treacherous road conditions.
Lorries, buses and cars all got stuck on the main routes through the city, ensuring lengthy tailbacks on Glasgow Road, Crieff Road, Dunkeld Road and Edinburgh Road.
However, the council said priority routes which include bus routes in Perth city had been treated on Sunday night and early Monday morning.
A council spokesman said, “The weather forecast at 7pm yesterday (Sunday) predicted snow over high ground. In line with the council’s winter maintenance programme, all priority routes in Perth and Kinross were treated with grit last night.
“Priority routes were gritted again at 5am this morning, before the snow started to fall. When snow began to fall, all available plant equipment was put out on to the network to begin clearance work.
“Because the snow fell through rush hour, when traffic on the road network was particularly heavy, gritting operations took longer than planned.”
Hundreds of schoolchildren were over an hour late as their buses were stuck in queues and Stagecoach announced there were problems on its routes. Numerous bumps and scrapes were reported to police, including several at blackspots on the A9 both north and south of Perth.
White-out conditions were reported around Dunblane and there were several crashes in the Greenloaning area. The A913 was closed due to flooding between Abernethy and Newburgh.Rail delaysThere were also rail delays as a lorry struck the underside of the railway bridge over Dunkeld Road shortly after 11am, which also saw the road closed to clear the obstruction.
Motorists who contacted The Courier described the chaotic scenes which saw them stuck in hour-long tailbacks as they tried to do the school run and get to work.
Malcolm Downie from Oakbank said, “It would normally take me about 10 minutes to get from home into the town centre but it took me almost an hour. The snow was quite slushy and slippery and cars just couldn’t get any traction on the hill.
“Bigger vehicles like buses and lorries were getting stuck and then cars were sliding about behind them-it was horrendous.”
Myra Shand from Letham agreed, stating, “I saw gritters out last night so I presume the roads had been treated but for some reason, cars just couldn’t get going.
“It’s not even as if the snow was that deep, but cars were skidding about everywhere. Even on flat roads, they were wheel-spinning and sliding. I was walking but the pavements were just as bad-it looks like the council’s been badly caught out.”
The return to Arctic conditions came on the day The Courier reported Perth and Kinross Council is expected to spend almost double its £2.8 million winter maintenance budget before the end of March.
A projected £5.5 million will be spent on gritting, snow clearing and other activities due to the prolonged extreme conditions.