PUPILS at Helensburgh and Lomond’s primary schools have helped choose the names of four gritters to be used on Argyll and Bute’s roads this winter.

All the area’s primary schools were invited to think up names for four gritters – one of them in Helensburgh and Lomond – to mark the arrival of 17 new winter maintenance vehicles in the council’s fleet.

The naming competition closed last week, and the council says it now has to set up a judging panel to choose the winners.

The best names will be displayed on a plate on the side of the vehicles.

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The new additions to the local authority’s fleet means it has 32 frontline vehicles ready for action, with another two spare in case of breakdowns – plus another six vehicles, and tractors and ‘V’ snowploughs, that can be deployed if necessary.

Councillor Robin Currie, policy lead for housing, roads and infrastructure services, said: “We have taken delivery of brand new, state-of-the art vehicles that can control the quantity, width and mix of salt and grit spread on the road.

"We’ve selected different sizes and types of vehicles needed for the variety of roads in Argyll and Bute and with different capacities to make sure they do the job for which they’re required.

“I very much look forward to seeing what names our imaginative young people suggest for our new gritters.

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“I’d also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to our roads workers. They are up, in the early hours when it’s cold and icy, to start making 750 miles of local roads safe for the rest of us.”

Argyll and Bute is far from the first public body in Scotland to have invited school pupils to name gritters – other similar vehicles ready for use on the country’s roads this winter include Sir Andy Flurry, Gritty Gritty Bang Bang and Sir Salter Scott.

For more information on the council’s adverse weather plans, click here.

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