People living on private roads affected by snow and ice this winter will be supplied with contact details for private contractors.
At the Queenstown Lakes District Council's infrastructure and services committee meeting yesterday, transport manager Denis Mander said last year such information had not been provided and some residents thought road clearance was the council's responsibility.
"The focus is on public roads."
However, Cr John Mann raised concerns about those residents and whether they were entitled to some kind of road maintenance.
"It's a bit of a dilemma ...people who are living on these private roads are paying a level of service ... and not getting it. How do we make adjustments?" Cr Mann asked.
Mr Mander said that "like a driveway, we would not go in and clean it" and private roads were of a lower standard, therefore the road user had received a cheaper asset.
Regarding an emergency situation, Mr Mander said because bad weather could be forecast three days before its onset, people could plan ahead.
Emails would be sent notifying "groups that should know where people are".
A key part of the plan was informing the public through various communication outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, of the road conditions and which roads would be open.
After last year's heavy snowfalls, the winter maintenance report for 2012 developed by the council had adjusted the priority of roads and addressed the clearing of footpaths.
