Powys residents will be asked to help grit roads and pathways in their area after plans move forward to drop hundreds of miles of roads from the gritting network.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Economy Residents and Communities scrutiny committee on 9 July, councillors received a draft report on phase two of the Winter Service review.

The review has been ongoing for over two years and the preferred option will see the county’s road network placed in tiers of priority from one to five and around 334 kilometres of roads will be dropped from the gritting network.

The proposal includes the need to buy and install 100 salt bins around the county, to help harder to reach communities.

Cllr Pete Lewington 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.”

Cabinet member for highways transport and recycling, Cllr Jackie 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 over 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 out 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.”