Scottish Borders Council

Agenda item

Winter Service Plan for Year 2020/21

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

Minutes:

5.1       With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 20 August 2019, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Assets & Infrastructure providing a brief review of the performance of Scottish Borders Council’s Winter Service during 2019/20 and presenting in Appendix A to the report the Council’s Winter Service Plan for 2020/21.  The Network & Infrastructure Manager, Brian Young, explained that the winter of 2019/20 was not particularly significant, continuing a pattern towards slightly warmer and wetter winters. Snowfall was limited to a few occasions while salt usage and the number of precautionary treatments undertaken was very much along average lines. The Winter Service Plan for 2020/21 was similar to the previous 2019/20 Plan in terms of policy, priorities, routes, call out arrangements and resource planning.   It further set out the potential impacts of Covid19 and associated contingency planning.  Mr Young went on to outline some amendments to the Winter Service Plan for 2020/21.  Following the recent change of Trunk Road operating contractor, the Council had been notified that they would not be called upon to provide support in delivering a winter service on the Trunk Road network.  At the Executive meeting of August 2019 Members had agreed to several amendments to the Winter Service Plan.  However they had requested further information in relation to the arrangements for primary footpaths.  A total of 174 km had been identified as the primary footway network that received winter treatment, as included in Appendix B to the report. The footway network was treated currently on a reactive/post treatment basis as conditions, prevailing temperatures and resources dictated. Unlike the roads network, there was no pre-treatment applied to any of the footway network. The arrangements for 2020/21 did not alter this policy but there would be a change in timing in that reactive treatment would be carried out on weekdays only, other than in extreme severe and prolonged circumstances.  In terms of contingency planning relating to Covid-19, the potential for staff to be affected and the impact on delivering the service was recognised.  A Resilience Plan to incorporate contractors within the Council’s resources to enable service continuity was almost in place, with staff and Unions being engaged in discussions around how this may work for this winter. With reference to the financial implications set out in the report, Mr Young drew attention to the target to deliver savings of £150k in 2020/21 from changes to winter operations.

 

5.2       In answers to Members’ questions about the Winter Service Plan 2020/21, Mr Young referred to the pressure to achieve savings and explained that by carrying out treatment of footways on weekdays only this avoided stand-up of workforce over the weekend which had often been proved to be unnecessary.  In a discussion about particular issues relating to Covid-19 and pressure points within Town Centres in terms of pedestrians and treatment of footways in bad weather, it was noted that the Council was responsible for facilitating the safe passage of pedestrians in town centres but that shop owners would be responsible for safety implications brought about by queuing or gathering outside their premises.  Mr Curry advised that the Council should have a pragmatic approach towards this issue and there would be engagement with local communities and businesses.

 

DECISION

AGREED to:-

 

(a)          note the performance of the SBC Winter Service during 2019/20; and

 

(b)          endorse the Winter Service Plan for 2020/21.

 

Supporting documents:

 

CONTACT US

Scottish Borders Council

Council Headquarters Newtown St. Boswells Melrose TD6 0SA

Tel: 0300 100 1800

Email:

For more Contact Details