Scottish Borders Council

Agenda item

Winter Service Plan for Year 2018/19

Consider report by Service Director Assets & Infrastructure.  (Copy attached).

Minutes:

There had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Assets & Infrastructure on the review of the performance of Scottish Borders Council’s Winter Service during 2017/18 and the Scottish Borders Council’s Winter Services Plan for 2018/19 presented in Appendix 1 of the report.  SBC provided a winter service on nearly 3,000km of roads across the Scottish Borders.  An annual Winter Plan was prepared to outline the steps that would be taken to ensure that the roads network was safe, within available resources.  The winter of 2017/18 was significant in terms of both snow and ice.  Of particular note was the prolonged length of the 2017/18 winter with a cold frosty finish to November, significant snowfalls into March and treatments continuing into April.  The most significant event of the year was in late February / early March when strong easterly winds swept winter weather from Siberia towards the British Isles.  The so called “Beast from the East” brought very heavy snowfall and freezing conditions for almost a week closing much of the road network and placing a significant strain on the emergency response; particularly in relation to driver availability and the need to comply with driver-hours regulations.  In addition to dealing with the initial impact of the “Beast from the East” there were subsequent flooding issues in many areas in the following days as heavy rainfall combined with snow-melt.

 

The Infrastructure Manager, Mr Brian Young, gave a summary on the main points to note. The Winter Service Plan for 2018/19 was similar in terms of policy, priorities, routes, call out arrangements and resource planning.  Officers had considered the current Winter Service Plan arrangements, and for 2018/19 did not propose any significant changes to the current plan which was robust in determining the Council’s standards and level of winter service.  Officers would continue to monitor and review existing winter service arrangements throughout this winter, noting any deficiencies in service provision, with a view to bringing forward any further amendments for the 2019/20 Winter Plan.  The Council undertook a Winter Service on nearly 3,000km of local road network provided by the Assets and Infrastructure Department.  Under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, Section 34, all roads authorities were required to “take such steps as they consider reasonable to prevent snow and ice endangering the safe passage of pedestrians and vehicles over public roads’.  The safe passage of people on the road network during winter was very important for the social and the economic needs of the area.  The two main points on keeping the road network operating safely and effectively were prevention and intervention.  The review of the service highlighted that the winter of 2017/18 was significant in terms of snowfall and the “Beast from the East” in early March this year and this was illustrated in table 4 of the report with a comparison of salt usage for the winter past to the previous 5 year average showing a 74% increase.  It was noted that as a result of reducing budgets and the need to deliver financial plan savings, it was likely that significant changes to the 2019/20 Winter Plan would be proposed.

 

DECISION

AGREED to:-

 

(a)       note the performance of the SBC Winter Service during 2017/18;

 

(b)       endorse the Winter Services Plan for 2018/19 contained in Appendix 1; and

 

(c)       agree to consider, no later than the end June 2019, amendments to the Winter Services Plan for season 2019/20

 

Supporting documents:

 

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