Stewart Stevenson ignored late severe weather alert

Published on Wednesday 8 December 2010 23:32

TRANSPORT minister Stewart Stevenson is facing calls to quit after it emerged he failed to react to the Met Office escalating its severe weather warning ahead of the winter storms that brought gridlock to Scotland's road network.

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The revelation came after the minister gave a statement to Holyrood in which he insisted the weather had been more severe than forecast.

After apologising for the Scottish Government's handling of the chaos, Mr Stevenson failed to mention he had received a severe "flash" heavy snow warning at 20:41 on Sunday night, nine hours before blizzards engulfed Scotland bringing gridlock to major roads and stranding hundreds of motorists in their cars.

Instead he cited a less severe weather forecast received hours earlier at 16:01, before telling MSPs: "Some areas clearly received more snow than forecast."

The Scottish Government later admitted Mr Stevenson had been aware of the flash weather warning but judged it to be no more serious than earlier forecasts.

But the Met Office last night insisted the 20:41 warning was issued after they detected an escalation in the severity of the looming snowstorms.

A Scottish Government spokesman claimed that Sunday night's 20:41 warning was predicting similar amounts of snow to the forecasts that were mentioned by Mr Stevenson.

In fact it increased the predicted snowfall from 1-3cm in areas including Glasgow and Edinburgh, to 2-5cm, as well as issuing "severe" warnings across central Scotland. It also warned of "widespread icy roads and heavy snow" around rush hour on Monday morning.

The spokesman said the Met Office's weather alert status for Scotland remained at "orange" throughout Sunday night and early Monday morning and had not moved to red – the level at which motorists are instructed to leave their cars in the garage. "The alert status was not changing and the snow level forecast had not changed," he said.

"Arrangements had been made to try and get people back to work and school that day by getting our gritting and salting operations going.

"That forecast was also for two to five centimetres of snow and 10cm on the higher ground and clearly that is not what occurred. The forecast at eight o'clock the following morning was saying the same thing."

Asked why Mr Stevenson had not mentioned the flash forecast during his statement in Holyrood the spokesman said: "In parliament, Stewart Stevenson was not exhaustively going through all the forecasts that we received."

He added: "The level of snow forecast would have been treatable, but the amount of snow that did fall up to 20cm was not treatable."

The new information was put on to the Traffic Scotland website, but Mr Stevenson chose not to take more drastic action such as instructing motorists not to take to the roads.

According to the Met Office, a flash warning is issued when forecasters are confident that the weather is going to get much worse.

A Met Office spokesman said: "Flash warnings for heavy snow are driven by our confidence that there is going to be widespread disruption from an escalation in the weather and that is what happened on Sunday night."

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Less than two hours after warning was issued, the Met weatherman Phil Avery told BBC television viewers: "It is all too easy to become complacent, but I should stress that these are fresh warnings from the Met Office about ice and snow . . . as a new weather feature brings fresh snowfall into the Central Belt just in time for the rush hour."

The heavy snowfall saw travel ground to a halt as motorways were brought to a standstill on Monday, with an 11-mile tailback on the M8, while the M80, the A80 and the M9 were also blocked.

Motorists were forced to abandon their cars on the M8 to try to walk to the nearest town after two jack-knifed lorries blocked the motorway at Harthill and Hermiston Gait, near Edinburgh.

Some motorists were forced to eat snow for hydration, while members of the public living next to the M8 rushed to their aid, providing drinks and food.

The police came under fire for failing to come to the aid of the stricken drivers, as motorists faced the prospect of spending the whole night stuck in their cars. Police estimated there were 500 stranded motorists on the M8 and a similar number on the M90.

Last night Labour's Holyrood transport spokesman, Charlie Gordon, called on Mr Stevenson to resign.

"He wriggles and squirms and pushes the blame on to others," he said. "He blames the weatherman – the problem wasn't the weather forecast or the Met Office, the problem was his totally inadequate response. Sorry is not good enough. Will the minister take responsibility, admit his incompetence and go?"

The Conservatives accused the minister of "selectively" quoting from weather forecasts in an attempt to shift the blame for the winter roads chaos onto the Met Office. In his parliamentary statement yesterday Mr Stevenson apologised again for "failing to communicate the position better and earlier" to travellers on Monday.

"I am the transport minister and I am responsible," he told MSPs. "What happened on Monday has been extremely difficult and challenging – it should not have happened, and I have apologised for the failure to communicate the position better and earlier."

He said the action needed to deal with the situation was "hugely complex" and that the amount of snow which fell on Scotland on Monday was "greater than estimated" by the Met Office in its advice to ministers.

The Lib Dems suggested the transport minister should personally start clearing the snow to "make amends" to all those affected.

But it was his failure to act on a crucial Met bulletin that was given to the government the night before the storm which led to opposition claims that the government was indulging in "subterfuge and spin" at a time when the nation was suffering.

Annabel Goldie MSP, Scottish Conservative leader, said: "This is not a time for subterfuge and spin – it beggars belief for the SNP to selectively quote from Met Office reports to back up the pretence that Monday's snow was 'unforecasted'."