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Highland Council to reduce size of gritter fleet | |
(about 11 hours later) | |
Twelve gritting lorries are to be axed by Highland Council as part of its efforts to save £55m over four years. | |
The council currently has a fleet of 115 gritters for use on Scotland's longest local authority-managed road network. | |
Highland Council said the 12 lorries were older vehicles and the fleet will be upgraded with more modern machines. | |
The move, which will be phased over two years and helps towards a £600,000 saving, impacts on 12 jobs. | |
Highland Council said it would seek to redeploy the affected staff, or phase out the posts as the workers retire. | |
Lochaber councillor Alan Henderson and Caithness councillor Matthew Reiss have criticised the move. | |
Mr Henderson said the it would lead to the loss of skilled workers. Mr Reiss said gritting "saved lives". | |
Highland Council said it would retain the capability to treat priority routes and deal with emergencies. | |
Councillors have been meeting in Inverness to debate a range of cuts. | |
Ahead of the meeting, the local authority's budget leader Maxine Smith described the scale of savings it must achieve as "immense". | |
She said the administration had listened to public feedback on proposed cuts and it had sought to protect frontline services and jobs. | She said the administration had listened to public feedback on proposed cuts and it had sought to protect frontline services and jobs. |
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