West Lothian Council has 60 vehicles ready to tackle winter weather alongside a contingency plan for Covid 19.

The council has put extra staff into its crew as part of plans to ensure winter maintenance is delivered amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ross McDonald from Operational Services told a meeting of the council’s executive that safeguards had been put in place to ensure winter gritting could continue if the second wave of Covid hits staff.

The council has  60 vehicles for gritting this winter and will continue gritting plans based on north and south of the county weather forecasting.

In a report to the executive, Operational Services said: “Covid-19 has the potential to severely impact staff availability and consequently additional contingency plans are being prepared. The Winter Service is a  key activity and will be prioritised over less critical work should the need arise.

“Staffing levels have been reviewed and Roads and Transportation have 40 trained gritter drivers who will be rostered to the winter service similar to previous years. In addition, the service has access to around 150 HGV drivers from other service areas of which training is planned for an initial 10 drivers to ensure that they are available from the start of the winter season.”

Plans include staggered start and finish times to make sure staff in different service areas remain separate from each other to help mitigate the risk of outbreaks.

Enhanced vehicle cleaning regimes have also been introduced to minimise cross contamination. The council has 30,000 tonnes of salt in stock