Powys residents could be expected to play a greater role in gritting roads and pathways in their communities, using salt bins provided by the county council.

The change forms part of a draft report on phase two of Powys County Council’s Winter Service review, which was presented to the Economy, Residents and Communities Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, July 9.

The Winter Service review has been ongoing for more than two years, and Powys County Council's Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet will be asked to choose between three options when they meet to discuss the proposals.

The council’s preferred choice - option two - would see the county’s road network divided into five tiers of priority, with around 334 kilometres of roads removed from the current gritting schedule.

To support more remote and harder-to-reach communities, the proposal also includes plans to purchase and install 100 new salt bins across the county.

Cabinet member for highways transport and recycling, Cllr Jackie Charlton (Liberal Democrat) said: “After a thorough process of consultation, review, and amendment, we now bring forward these final proposals.

“Today’s paper reflects both national best practice and local perspective, aiming to deliver a fair, consistent and high-quality winter service for every community in Powys.”

Cllr Pete Lewington (Conservative) said: “We are proposing to cut roads from the gritting routes, which could lead to some areas to be isolated in very harsh conditions.

“On community bins, there’s an assumption that residents are willing and fit enough to help on untreated roads provided they can get to the grit bin in the first place.

“I do wonder if this is abandoning the residents in remote locations to the impacts of severe weather events.”

Cllr Charlton said: “I do understand that it’s going to cause concern - we had to come up with an equitable approach.”

Cllr Charlton stressed that gritting routes had not been reviewed in more than 20 years and hoped that residents would be “vigilant” and live by the “help your neighbour” philosophy during extreme winter weather.

Cllr Charlton said: “We’re hoping that our county councillors and town and community councils will help and support us by making sure those bins are in the right place and are being used by the right people for the right reason.

“For that reason, we may be able to cover far more roads than we do now and communities can do something immediately other than wait for a lorry to come out and put grit down.”

Cllr Liz Rijnenberg (Labour) added: “If salt bins are in the right places and they are replenished, I think there has to be more responsibility on communities to use those and make roads and pathways safe.”

Highways technical and business services senior manager Shaun James stressed that the council would continue to respond in extreme winter weather “white out conditions” in the same way as it has always done and the money to do this would be found from the risk reserve if needed.

Councillors agreed to recommend option two to cabinet.