Tuesday October 6th 2026
Gritting services in the Borders
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
The chief roads officer for Scottish Borders Council has issued a plea for older residents to be self-aware of the potential dangers posed by icy pathways this winter.
At a meeting of the council’s Executive Committee today (Tuesday, October 6) members adopted a Winter Service Plan.
The approach for the winter ahead is based around both prevention and intervention.
It includes pre-salting roads to reduce the impact of frost and frozen surfaces on travel conditions; delivered on a routine, planned basis.
Councillor Simon Mountford, Conservative for Kelso, raised the issue of older residents in Yetholm last winter slipping on icy pavements which had not been gritted while on route to local shops.
In response, Jason Hedley, SBC’s Chief Officer Roads, called on those residents to adopt a “self-help” approach in such situations.
He said: “This is about the council’s Winter Plan doing the best that we can with the resources that we’ve got.
“Really what we need is to emphasise that sort of community self-help and self-awareness.
“If people can take some preparedness for their own health and well-being. If they go out for, I believe the local term is ‘for their messages’, at 8am every day, and it has clearly been a cold night, maybe stick back a bit and give us a chance to get out and do our work to enable you to safely go down to the shops.
“Sometimes with the weather the sun comes up in the winter in the Scottish Borders and it does help us defrost our path network and road network.
“Just be cognisant of the conditions out there and try and exercise some self-help, maybe a friendly neighbour can help you by going for your messages or maybe you could arrange a delivery from some well-known supermarkets to your house.
“It’s trying to be adaptable because the reality is we can’t be everywhere at 7am across our 3,000km of roads and 676km of footways.”
Tweet Share on Facebook
