January snow-clearing in Aberdeenshire cost council £1.6m

Aberdeenshire Council's chief executive has called on individuals and communities to take more responsibility during extreme weather to help keep local areas clear.

Jim Savege revealed to BBC Scotland News that the local authority had spent £1.6m on snow clearing since 1 January - about £500,000 of that has been paid to farmers contracted to use ploughs and tractors.

The north-east of Scotland was hit by very heavy snow during the early parts of January - closing schools and businesses and causing major travel disruption.

When asked if people should be doing more to help during periods of such extreme weather, Savege said: "Simply put, yes."

The council's chief executive said he would "have to be fair" when it came to calling for help.

"I am back into the conversation in terms of what people get for their money and council tax," he told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime.

"I am not sitting here and saying that's an absolute cast-iron expectation, there are choices here of people in communities that they are making day-in, day-out in terms of what they are able and willing and wanting to do.

"If someone wants to come and help us, a snow warden will say - well actually can you do this here, or can you do that there."

"So we are wanting to be able to say that we can help, we can do something, how do we do this together."

Aberdeenshire Council declared a major incident during the period of heavy snow.

The authority had teams clearing roads during the wintry weather but some members of the public said the response was too slow.

Savege said the council will budget for a "normal winter" but the heavy snowfall meant it had to react.

"I do not think people would thank me if I had a fleet of gritters parked in a yard somewhere just being kept in case I need them at some point in time," he said.

"That is a lot of public money tied up and unnecessary expense to do so.

"So we have to be more agile in that way in terms of deploying kits and people out and about when things happen and we did that within a couple of days quite quickly."

A total of £500,000 was paid to farmers to help clear the snow, as well as individuals volunteering to help.

The council deployed 44 of its own gritters and about 15 ploughs.

Savege said the efforts of farmers helped to show how reacting to extreme weather events was a "team effort".

"A load of them we pay for and that is by design and intent," he said.

"We are using everybody's strengths and capabilities across Aberdeenshire, not just the council, but the whole community."