Council works on new strategy to deal with severe weather

A NEW strategy to deal with severe weather is being drawn up by city chiefs as it emerged that this winter's cold snap cost the council £4 million.

It is hoped that the new emergency plan will be in place by next winter, and will focus on ensuring that the city can cope if it suffers another season of prolonged bad weather.

Among the measures being proposed are hiring 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 to help out.

Details of the plan emerged as the council revealed that the bad weather is expected to have cost it 4.16m, 2.5m over budget.

The cost includes 3.1m spent on treating and clearing roads over 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.

News of the new emergency plan has been welcomed by motoring groups. Neil Greig, director of policy at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: "This was a really extreme event but all the experts say we are going to get a lot more extreme weather so many councils will need to have plans in place to deal with that."

He also welcomed specific proposals to have private contractors on standby to assist with clearing roads and pavements, and to offer motorists a text service with localised roads information.

"A lot of councils in rural areas have them (private firms on standby] already so it is bringing in best practice from other councils. And having better information is really important. Specific information about which local streets are open would help everyone."

Council chiefs are to draw up the new emergency plan by October. Part of the plan will also look at improving gritting standards in high-lying areas.

One of the options being considered is to lease an extra eight mini tractors, which would cost around 100,000 a year. However, a major expansion of the fleet has been ruled out as it would cost around 1.4m annually and many of the machines would be under-utilised throughout the year.

Officials are also to research how Scandinavian countries deal with the winter weather and see if they can learn from methods used there.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, the city's environment leader, said: "Despite experiencing the worst winter in 30 years, we were able to keep Edinburgh moving and, in that respect, I view the management of the emergency as a real success.

"Nevertheless, it is important that we learn the lessons from this experience and I welcome the development of a council severe weather plan to ensure that we are well placed to deal with similar events in the future.

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