WE MIGHT be in the middle of a heatwave but Fife Council is currently reviewing provision of grit bins!

Councillor David Barratt, who represents Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay, has produced maps for his constituents to highlight which bins might be reviewed and is urging them to have their say.

He said: "It's not really the sort of thing that is high upon people's agenda in the height of summer!

"However, this is something that they've been looking at for a while and it makes sense to do this after a bad winter.

"There's definitely logic in what the council are trying to achieve but we must make sure in the process that we don't go over the top.

"Councillor' believe there are ones they've highlighted for removal that shouldn't be and it would help if residents could back us up with evidence.

"Surprisingly, I've had several emails from constituents who've say they've got grit bins that are not needed.

"Even in the height of summer, people want to tell us what they think on both sides.

"When the Beast from the East hit there was some grit bins that were not even used so we definitely need to decide which ones need to go, otherwise we're wasting resources.

"The council will be able to restock the bins that are used regularly instead.

"However, we won't just accept the officers’ recommendations; as councillors we want to know the impact behind these decisions."

Feedback will be sent on to officers until late July and residents should start to see some grit bins disappearing from late August.

However, each area will be monitored, and some decisions could reversed if deemed necessary.

Service manager Ian Smart, (asset management and commercial) said: "We have a budget saving target of £0.170m over the next two years to reduce the cost of Fife’s winter service. Part of this saving will impact the provision of grit bins and while no final numbers have been set, an exercise is under way reviewing the locations of grit bins across Fife.

“We’ve consulted with local elected members to get their opinion on grit bin locations.”

“The policy is to provide grit bins on minor housing estate roads and footpaths which are not on the primary gritting network. We’ve removing many grit bins on the primary route network since they are already receiving the highest level of road-gritting service.”

"Fife currently has a very good level of service for winter gritting and grit bins, but it must be provided within a finite budget and we are endeavouring to achieve that balance."