Monday 29 November 2010

Winter update from Land and Environmental Services

I received the following update this afternoon - if any constituents are experiencing particular problems, please feel free to contact me.



As you are aware, widespread and significant snowfalls over the weekend have resulted in considerable disruption throughout the central belt. This unseasonably cold spell has brought falls of up to 6 inches across Glasgow.

Council staff have been working around the clock in order to keep priority roads and footways open. Around 400 Council personnel have been supplemented by 100 from contractors.

A slight easing in conditions today is allowing us to treat secondary as well as priority routes. The refilling of grit bins has also been prioritised.

The weather forecast for today suggests that there will be a few snow showers around this afternoon, interspersed with sunny spells. By dusk a heavier line of showers is expected to move in from the east and some of this snow may affect Glasgow, giving local accumulations. The very cold weather looks set to continue through this week with temperatures remaining below zero both by day and by night. Many of the heavy snow showers will stick to the eastern side of Scotland leaving a lot of dry weather in the west, however, a few will blow through from time to time and could give local accumulations.

Our salt stocks remain at healthy levels at present although these will continue to be monitored closely.

The severe weather is also impacting on our cleansing operations citywide. Over the course of the weekend around 60% of refuse was lifted as normal. Refuse collection of multi-storey flats remains a priority and wheeled bins left on kerbside from the weekend are being attended to today. Local Area Teams are also attempting to uplift refuse from wheeled bins presented on kerbside and backcourt areas. Due to ongoing hazards presented by the snow and ice, additional parks and street cleansing operatives are being utilised to grit roads and footways to allow safe access in advance of refuse collection teams reaching these addresses.

At the moment, bulk and tenement blue bin recycling uplifts are suspended as these resources have been redeployed to assist with the core priorities of refuse collection. Street cleansing operations are also restricted to clearing shop-front areas and gritting of priority footways at this time.

No comments: