Euan's just wizard in the blizzard

HE stands, one arm outstretched into the biting wind, a finger raised aloft, the safety strip on his luminous jacket glinting in the headlights of passing cars . . . Yes, he nods, there's snow on the way, time to ship out the salt and gritters.

Euan Kennedy puts salt, snowploughs and gritter trucks to work in Edinburgh's annual battle with the merciless winter elements

Well, that is perhaps the romantic vision of the rather more mundane reality of making sure Edinburgh's roads are fit to drive on, its pavements fit to traverse, in the winter.

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"Yes, sniffing the air to tell if the snow is coming just doesn't happen - it's a lot more sophisticated," says Euan Kennedy, the man to whom it falls to keep the city moving while in the grip of snow and ice.

Even with all the gadgetry and computer wizardry Edinburgh City Council's road department employs, ensuring that the roads are kept open when the snow hits is all about being prepared.

And the preparation is in the hands of road services manager Euan, a man who, in a previous life, faced head-on the might of the All Blacks, and who scored against England on the way to Scotland's Grand Slam success in 1984. Battling the forces of nature though is a different prospect altogether, he admits.

Which is why, piled high inside a domed building in Sighthill, more than 4000 tonnes of salt wait. A further three locations across the city are also holding stockpiles, bringing Edinburgh's total to more than 7000 tonnes, 37 per cent more than was held this time last year.

"Last winter was the worst in Edinburgh in over 20 years, and I've been doing this job for 22 years," says Euan. "But we never ran out of salt. It did get low, so we've upped the stocks this year and we've implemented a new system so that rather than waiting for stocks to fall by 50 per cent of capacity before we order more salt, this year if we use even 1000 tonnes, then more will be ordered immediately.

"That's a lesson we learned from last year."

Given that snow has fallen in Grampian and Dumfries and Galloway regions this week, it does seem likely that the Lothians will be hard hit this winter,

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"The Met Office is a lot more cautious about long-range forecasting because it can go wrong," Euan says, smiling. "Last year it predicted a barbecue summer and a mild winter and look at what happened.

"Along with the other three Lothian councils, we buy a forecasting service from the Met Office during the winter months which gives us a 24-hour forecast," explains Euan. "We get three key forecasts daily which allows our two duty managers to decide whether we need to mobilise the gritters.

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"In addition to that, we have ice alert sites across the city, where sensors are buried in the road surface to give us an indication of icing. We are more interested in the temperature of the road surface rather than the air temperature, as that can be warmer at times, or vice versa. Windy conditions can raise the surface temperature, but cold still nights are the worst.

"Basically, as soon as we know the roads are going to need salted, the team is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until the snow has gone."

Last year that meant four weeks of battling heavy snowfall, which cost the council 4 million in salt, staff, and repairs to roads in the aftermath.

Despite working flat out for that period without a day off, the roads staff were still accused of not clearing roads quickly enough.

"What the public perhaps doesn't realise is that we have to categorise the roads," Euan explains. "Category one is the main arterial routes in and out of the city, the major bus routes, the roads to the hospitals and fire stations. Category two is the rest of the main roads, the link roads to the category one roads. And category three is the remainder of the road network, which is the majority of it, the housing estates, the smaller streets and so on.

"We got through last winter without having to close a main road. I think the bypass was closed for some time but that's the responsibility of BEAR Scotland, not us, but of course it had a knock-on effect on our road network.

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"But of course we get residents who phone up and complain about their roads. I know it's frustrating for people to have to go through the pain and suffering of driving through snow, but our priority has to be to keep the main roads open. The problem last year was 20 snow showers in a 15-day period. Normally you get one, and are able to clear it by the time of the next one. It just didn't happen like that last year."

He adds: "When there is bad snow we're always compared to places like Canada, but that's ridiculous. These countries have huge landmasses and can see snow coming from miles away and so can be prepared way in advance. We're an island and that means massive weather changes."

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Unsurprisingly, the size of the task of keeping the city road network open means a big staff. "We've got 100 guys on the rota to man things 24/7, on 12-hour shifts. They work flat out, manning the grit lorries, filling up the grit boxes, clearing the pavements, clearing disabled ramps and footbridges . . . and this is not their real job. The vast majority are skilled road workers, but they are trained to deal specifically with the winter conditions.

"But nobody spares a thought for them, even though they have to work through Christmas and New Year to keep the roads clear."

David Gillies can attest to that. "I think I've had a Christmas at home twice in the last 20 years," he says. "But that's the job, it's what you sign up for, although it can be hard for the family to understand."

A senior chargehand at the Bankhead depot, David is gearing up for another hard winter. "I'm in charge of the salt here, it's up to me to make sure that stocks are enough so I liaise with the depots at Barnton and Blackford and we have another mothballed site at Longstone which we're using for salt storage this year.

He adds: "Things have changed a lot over the years. When I started it was all old Army trucks, but now we've got Mercedes vehicles which are warm inside - it certainly helps. One thing I would ask the public to do is when they clear their drives and paths, not to put the snow on to the footways and roads, rather put it to the side of their own paths, because our mini tractors do not have enough power to clear piles of snow like that from pavements."

Euan, too, has advice for the public. "We have 1800 salt bins full of pure salt and we do rely on people using these. But there was an issue last year about people being scared to salt the pavement, worried that they'd be legally responsible if it snowed again and someone fell. The Health and Safety Executive issued a statement saying that was ridiculous. The legal opinion is that if you are doing something that is addressing the hazard, and someone later falls, then it is not your fault.

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"Right now we're as prepared as we can be - the public should be too."

DEEP FREEZE

LAST winter saw Scotland suffer its coldest in 31 years, and Edinburgh was particularly badly hit.

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Dealing with the snow cost the city council 4.16 million - 2.5m over its budget.

The cost included 3.1m spent on treating and clearing roads during 2009/10 and 700,000 on road repairs. Another 309,000 went on hiring private firms to provide extra cover for waste and cleansing services.

Among the measures being taken this year to help - as well as increasing salt stocks - are more mini tractors to clear pavements of snow, creating a new database of vulnerable people to allow the council to target aid, and setting up more contingency contracts with private firms.

Forecasters are warning of another "bitterly cold winter". Widespread fog is expected in December and heavy snow in January.