Gareth Edwards: Getting to nitty gritty of keeping city moving

ANYONE who dreamed of a white Christmas in the Capital was probably ruminating on the phrase "be careful what you wish for" as they skated to work this morning.

Three weeks into the worst cold spell in recent memory and the city is still struggling to cope with the build-up of snow and ice that has turned pavements and roads into ice-rinks

Dozens of people have been injured in falls, while there have been a multitude of shunts and bumps on the icy roads.

Perhaps inevitably there have been accusations of incompetence hurled at the council, and calls for an inquiry into why we cannot cope with a bit of cold weather.

So as emergency supplies of grit and salt are delivered at Leith, and residents brace themselves for further snowfalls and plummeting temperatures, is there anything we can do to prevent such problems in future? Should we be modelling our efforts on what they do in Europe and the US where wintry weather never seems to cause life to grind to a halt? Or would it cost too much, given the relative rarity of such events in the central belt?

The council currently spends around 1.1 million on clearing roads and pavements in winter, and has a statutory duty to take such steps as it considers "reasonable to prevent snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles over public roads".

That does not appear to have happened this year, however, and has left many residents angry and perplexed.

Meanwhile, in countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, the roads are kept clear by people working round the clock with snowploughs and gritters.

The same is true in France and Germany.

One of the biggest problems Scottish councils face in trying to prepare for winter weather is unpredictability.

Countries such as Sweden and Norway are guaranteed heavy snow every year and so can prepare accordingly.

In some areas, this guarantee of bad weather also means drivers can be better prepared – in some of the more mountainous regions of Europe roads are not even cleared of hard-packed ice. Instead, drivers are told to fit snow-chains. Such advice would be almost useless here, as these weather conditions are so rare.

Neil Greig, director of policy at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, says there are some measures that could be used to help keep Scotland's roads clear, but admits it is a difficult problem.

"Very few countries have such unpredictable winter weather as Scotland, and that causes problems for us when it comes to extreme weather," he says.

"A cold winter, with some snow and ice, can be dealt with pretty effectively, but we seem to struggle to get everything organised to cope with extreme conditions, as has been seen in the last few weeks.

"We could ensure that every year there are enough staff and resources to handle the most extreme weather, but that would carry a significant cost for a service which might only be needed once every 20 years.

"What I think could help would be better use of technology – having more ice sensors out on major roads to help give a clearer picture of where grit and salt are needed.

"A system like that would cost relatively little, and would pay itself off in the money saved by dealing with the problem areas rather than just gritting everything."

Former city transport leader Councillor Andrew Burns, who was in charge of organising winter maintenance when Labour ran the local authority, believes that having extra hands ready to clear the roads needn't be expensive, if the council ensures its workforce is more flexible.

"This is the capital city of Scotland, and we have close to 20,000 staff, many of whom could be re-allocated to help clear roads and pavements," he says.

"The majority of park staff, for example, won't be doing much to tend the parks, and so could be put to better use helping to clear the roads and pavements.

"It is possible that the work-to-rule action by bin men has had an effect, as they were always one of the biggest extra resources we had to help clear the pavements of ice, and that doesn't appear to have happened this year.

"There is no magic treatment that I've heard about though, it

is a case of being properly organised and prepared, and managing the resources correctly."

Councillor Robert Aldridge, the city's current environment leader, agrees that the council needs to look again at its provision for winter roads management, but stresses the problems this year were due not to a lack of preparation but to the extreme weather.

"Clearly we will need to review what happened this year and learn any lessons we can, but we have had our 26 gritters and 12 mini-tractors working 24 hours a day to try and keep the city moving," he says.

"We have to concentrate on the main roads and access roads for emergency vehicles as a priority, and I think we have deployed our resources correctly.

"This sort of weather is a once-in-20-years event. In countries where this sort of weather happens every year they can prepare for it, but we need to allocate resources to deal with an average winter."

Cllr Aldridge also denies the bin dispute has caused any additional problems, saying that street-cleaning staff had been drafted in to help deal with the build-up of ice on pavements around the Capital.

As this year's weather was an extreme event, putting measures in place to deal with a similar cold snap every year, especially in these cash-strapped times, could not be seen as a good use of resources.

However, the problems of the past month need to be closely examined to ensure that if such weather does become a regular occurrence, the city isn't left at the mercy of the elements again.