A Perthshire councillor has thanked an inspirational 10-year-old who has been clearing and gritting paths by presenting him with all the equipment needed to do the job.
Primary five pupil Charlie Hay has become a familiar sight on the footpaths of Inchture armed with a shovel and trundling his trolley with a bucket filled with rock salt.
Carse of Gowrie councillor Angus Forbes called the heroic schoolboy the "absolute epitome" of how local residents can work together to help others.
The selfless schoolboy has been clearing pavements around his Perthshire neighbourhood for the past couple of years.
Charlie told the Perthshire Advertiser: "I go up and down my street and round the corner."
On occasion he has been known to go round the entire village making sure at least one pavement on one side of the road is clear.
And his generous actions have not gone unnoticed.
Charlie was left grinning from ear to ear when Conservative councillor Angus Forbes presented him with the equipment needed to become an official council volunteer on Christmas Eve.
Cllr Forbes told the Perthshire Advertiser: "Charlie is an inspirational young man who has spent a lot of time helping other people by gritting the pavements around Inchture. It seemed only right that we give him the proper tools to do the job safely. I was delighted to present him with a gritter, snow shovel, safety jacket, torch and boot grippers to help him with his gritting.
" As council budgets are cut every year, more and more the council relies on people like Charlie to help out by doing a little bit now and then. We all need to work together to help each other and Charlie is the absolute epitome of that."
Mum Jodie said: "He checks the weather forecast all the time and goes out as soon as he gets home from school.
"Someone put it on Facebook and asked people to give him a wave and it just went mad and all these people are waving at him and beeping their horns. He's a wee celebrity.
"Then Angus Forbes got in touch to thank him for what he was doing and delivered the equipment on Christmas Eve."
Charlie is thrilled with his new set of wheels. He said: "It's really good."
Asked if he came home sore after a hard shift salting the pavements he smiled: "A wee bit - but not now I've got my push-along! It's much easier and it's faster."
Charlie is Perth and Kinross Council's youngest volunteer gritter and the council is extremely grateful for the help he and others bring to keep residents safe.
A PKC spokesperson said: "Charlie’s wish to help others in his community is very much appreciated, and we were delighted to provide him with a push-along gritter just before the festive break.
"He joins a number of volunteers around Perth and Kinross who are part of our pavement gritting self-help scheme which has been running for a number of years. Under this scheme, we supply members of the public with a gritter unit and rock salt, and they carry out gritting on an agreed length of public footway.
"We assess all applications from volunteers on the basis of need and where the push-along gritters can be most effectively deployed to provide additional resilience for gritting, until such times as council resources are available to carry out winter maintenance treatment.
"We have a small number of push-along gritter units still available for use in local communities and anyone who would be potentially interested in volunteering for this self-help scheme should contact our Customer Services team by calling 01738 476476."
