Community praised as cold snap eases – but asked for ongoing patience

Orkney Islands Council is thanking the local community for the patience and support shown to the authority’s Roads team – and to each other – over the recent severe wintry weather, but is warning challenging road conditions remain.

OIC Roads and Environmental Services Manager, John Wrigley, said: “While I’m really grateful of all the extremely hard work of all our staff over the last week – our gritter and plough crews and back room staff – I’m also really appreciative also of all the farmers and folk with tractors and 4WD vehicles who’ve helped in the clearing efforts and come to the aid of stranded drivers.

“We’ve undoubtedly seen more favourable temperatures overnight and the thaw is coming, but I would emphasis we still have a lot of work to do to catch up on drifts from last night impacting on Priority 1 routes. All Priority 1 routes are passable with the exception of a section of the main road between Brig O’Waithe and the Harry junction which we are hoping to have clear by later today.

“We’ll be continuing to tidy up and widen Priority 1 routes and as soon as time and resources allow we will move onto clearing drifts from Priority 2 and 3 routes. It will be slow going though, as just due to the sheer volume, we can’t just drive a snow plough through in many areas, and it will need to be dug out.

“I’d emphasise therefore that road conditions are still challenging and plead for continued caution and patience – we’d still ask that folk remain home if they can and avoid non-essential travel. This will help us get the job done.

“Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by what might look like cleared conditions where you are – many back roads are still impassable and all routes will have compacted snow and layers of ice which will be slippy.”

For more about the order in which roads are treated in Orkney, read the Council's Winter Service Plan.

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