Agenda item

1.1          There had been a request for a discussion at the Area Partnership on the impact of Storm Arwen on communities.  Mr Philip Kerr of Southdean Community Council introduced the discussion with a verbal update noting there was a need to assess progress with the electricity and telecommunications networks.  There had been further issues with the electricity network following Storm Malik which communities were using opportunities to share updates across social media networks.  Mr Kerr suggested that communities should have access to mapping of electricity and telecommunications network lines to readily identify sources.  Mr Kerr advised that forestry had been having a difficult time with recent storm events.  After speaking with Forestry and Land Scotland, Mr Kerr advised they were still aware of the wheel causeway path issue of needing its path however the recent storms had meant that there were other priorities for the agency to address as matter of priority.  The damage assessment from the storms may affect Forestry and Land Scotland’s five and ten year plans.  Mr Kerr advised he wished to understand how electricity and telecommunications companies were making their lines more resilient and whether lines would be buried underground.  With regards to blocked roads, Mr Kerr suggested that Scottish Borders Council could publish a list of affected locations.  Mr Kerr further suggested that a Teviot and Liddesdale resilience webpage may help to capture infrastructure incidents in the area.  Mr Kerr advised that telecommunications had been in a better status and that he raised the possibility of ‘not spots’ being covered with more than one source of power.  Tree clearing had been taking place at Windhope where it had been suggested that clearing of trees may help strengthen other trees.  In response to a question from the Chairman on fibre optic cables shattering when strung along poles, Mr Kerr advised that a 22-day broadband outage had been caused by a similar incident.  Mr Kerr further advised that BT had rolled out fibre optic technology by stringing cables between poles and that fibre optic cables were strung tighter than copper lines making them more resilient however they were still vulnerable to trees falling.

1.2          Ms Barbara Elborn of Newcastleton Community Council gave a verbal update on the impact of storm incidents in Newcastleton.  Electricity had been off in Newcastleton for between 24 – 36 hours, while some properties were without electricity for five or six days.  There had been concerns regarding levels of response with questions raised around resilience measures for vulnerable and elderly people requiring generators.  Future communications resilience was also raised where there had been experience of digital services failing while analogue services were still live during the incident.  Ms Elborn reported that an Executive Officer for Openreach had advised that a deal had been done to supply a 24-hour generator pack which was to be used sparingly.  Path clearing had been requested to take place.  Ms Elborn advised that there needed to be better understanding of road closures outside of the local authority area so that there was awareness of incidents to the north and south of Newcastleton.  Mr Kerr added that he had a digitised telephone service which had lost service while others in Southdean had a copper line and had lost service for 10 to 15 hours.  BT provided Mr Kerr with a mini-hub with a 25 megabyte broadband internet connection.

1.3          Councillor McAteer advised that conversations had taken place with the Chief Executive of Scottish Borders Council for information and advice on incident response.  Scottish Borders Council could provide quick assurances where there were problems in places.  The experience of providing information following the Storm Arwen incident was being investigated.  Councillor McAteer advised Councillors would get read only access to an incident log.  Mr Kerr added that the response from BT Openreach was received poorly which may have been caused by overwhelming numbers of calls.  SP Energy Networks also provided an essential service however, Mr Kerr advised, they had large numbers of staff dealing with incidents.

1.4          Councillor Ramage advised she had been dealing with the situation at Lyndon Park where there were elderly people.  Councillor Ramage reported that when the power cut affecting Lyndon Park had taken place, she called SBC to have a generator supplied.  This was initially granted but nothing had arrived due to a breakdown.  Councillor Ramage tried to call out Scottish Power however they didn’t show for a 4.00 pm appointment and also failed to show the next day for a 3.00 pm appointment.  Scottish Power then arrived the following day when a live electrical cable had been identified.  Councillor Ramage added that when there was more recent stormy weather, she had been checking social media for community updates which may not have been available if communication networks failed.  Mr Kerr added that BT Openreach had different engineers for copper and fibre cabling and different jobs associated with linking cabling.

DECISION

NOTED.