No 'true grit' from me!

Police in Dundee seem to be taking a more realistic view of the state of the area's roads following their stance expressed on Monday - and highlighted here - that they had "no reports of any adverse road conditions in the area". Yesterday's Evening Telegraph quoted a police spokesman as saying: "In light of the sub-zero temperatures and icy conditions in recent days we are reminding drivers and pedestrians to take every precaution on the roads."

Meanwhile, relations between residents and local authorities in Courier country seem to have become very frosty over the efforts of councils to deal with the snow and ice that are making for treacherous conditions on the region's roads and pavements. On Tuesday I highlighted a Courier report critical of Fife Council's response to the problem, and in today's letters column all but one of the missives contain complaints relating to the issue in the Kingdom.

Meanwhile, last night's STV News reported that hospital theatre staff in Fife have had to be recalled from their holidays because of the extra operations resulting from falls caused by the icy conditions. By contrast, one of the Courier's correspondents makes the point that Fife Council's "highly paid, ineffective" officials are "probably on holiday at present" (and hell would probably have to freeze over to disturb this, never mind the roads and pavements!), while independent councillor Bryan Poole highlights that possibly a majority of its senior officials don't live in Fife and thus won't appreciate the strength of feeling.

In Tayside the Evening Telegraph reported last night that hospitals are "continuing to be inundated by patients requiring treatment for ice-related falls" and that: "The volume of incidents is such that NHS Tayside has been unable to give a total for the numbers of patients treated for weather-related fractures and other injuries."

Meanwhile, Dundee City Council is blame-shift..., er, I mean encouraging an ethos of self-reliance from residents by asking them to do their own gritting while the council deals with priority routes, but this has cut little ice with independent councillor Ian Borthwick, who has called for a policy review in light of the worst conditions for some time. And this has clearly gone down like a lead balloon with many Dundonians if the subsequent flurry of letters in the Evening Telegraph are representative of public opinion.

Today Perth & Kinross gets the cold shoulder from residents, with the Courier's report highlighting the response of one motorist, who branded the "council's failure in face of the big freeze "a joke"". The paper also reports that some of the council's gritter fleet was off the road because of technical problems caused by the "extreme weather" (echoes of Fife Council earlier in the week!). Equally unilluminating is the reported response of officialdom to questions relating to how many gritters were out of action at any one time: "Different numbers at different times."

Yesterday I took the above photograph of a tricky road in rural Fife, and out in the middle of nowhere came across a grit box, and wondered whether I should do my civic duty in view of the official stance in Dundee. However, since there were probably at least a couple of miles of road similar to that pictured, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour. No 'true grit' from me!