The Borders prepares for more wintry weather

A band of sleet and snow is expected to move in to the area in the late evening, before clearing during Thursday morning.

Up to 10cm of snow may fall on ground over 300m, with 1-2cm widely at low levels.

At lower levels the snow may also turn to rain, which Scottish Borders Council say could wash off salt laid on roads, before clearing, resulting in a risk of ice tomorrow morning.

Road surface temperatures are predicted to fall to -6C. Further updates to the Met Office warning are expected during Thursday.

The council says it is allocating all available resources to winter maintenance operations, but the continued conditions are posing a challenge and residents are urged to follow Met Office advice and make decisions about going out and about accordingly.

Due to the conditions a number of waste and recycling collections have not been completed.

Householders are asked to leave their bins out for collection where it is safe to do so and re-collections will be attempted wherever possible.

If these cannot be completed for any reason then side waste will be collected on the next scheduled collection date.

A spokesperson for the council said that gritting crews started treating primary routes again from 3pm today, with additional gritting of critical routes through the evening and overnight as required, following treatment of primary and secondary routes throughout the morning.

The spokesperson added: “On Thursday morning, staff will be out from 5am, with priority footpath treatments starting at 6am along with the salting of primary and secondary routes.

“Staff are also checking and replenishing salt bins across all towns. The salt in these bins are for use on public footpaths/streets and not for personal use.”

Executive member for infrastructure, travel and transport, Councillor Gordon Edgar, said: “We are going above and beyond our winter service plan to help tackle the situation, which has resulted in difficult conditions for Borderers due to the very specific weather circumstances that we have experienced.

“As there is now a national ‘Stay at Home’ order to help tackle the rapid spread of Covid-19, there are less people travelling about the Borders, but our winter service continues to operate to ensure that we do all we can to support our key workers and minimise slips and falls which can lead to extra pressure on the health service.

“I would appeal to everyone, if your journey is not essential please do not travel. And, if you can delay any journeys on foot or by road until temperatures rise later in the day and any ice has cleared then please do so.”