Council staff have done wonders

Jan 14 2010 West Lothian Courier

THESE snow conditions are unfortunately the most severe for decades and I have great sympathy for residents of West Lothian who have missed appointments, had to stay off work, needed to dig out their car, been housebound, or worried about how friends, family, and neighbours are coping.

At various times over the Christmas period, I have found myself in each of these situations.

Due to the intensity of the snow, the number of isolated showers, the low temperatures reducing the effectiveness of the salt, and the main roads having to be continually retreated, this has resulted in less time being available to treat residential areas.

Despite this, West Lothian Council staff have done wonders to keep main roads gritted and almost always free of snow and ice. When necessary, West Lothian Council road gritters have been deployed 24 hours per day on a dayshift, backshift, and nightshift basis to continually plough and treat these roads. Where grit bins have been refilled, they have been emptied almost immediately.

The absolute priority has been to treat the primary routes to maintain the public transport network and to ensure continuation of food supplies to shops, and this has largely been successful. I know this is little consolation to those who find their cars trapped in their street.

All the council's roads department resources are deployed on winter duties and, as per procedure, additional staff have been brought in from street cleansing, land services, and building services to assist with the treatment of residential areas.

It is, therefore, with some degree of consternation that I find that the West Lothian Labour Group are trying to make political capital out of other people’s misery.

They have been propagating the myth that West Lothian Council have cut our gritting budget and should have suspended the existing winter policy to enable treatment of secondary routes outwith normal working hours.

The truth is that the budget has not been cut and that council officers have full discretion within the current policy to change operating procedure. They did so, and extra staff were called in and additional resources used.

The main limiting factors were that the weather required these resources to be used to retreat priority routes, it is difficult to ask staff to work longer shifts than 12 hours per day (every day), and virtually all private contractors were on their traditional two-week Christmas shut down.

Now that the holiday period for the construction industry is over, 21 additional large plant hire vehicles have been brought in to help with snow-clearing operations. More will be hired when they are available. These items of plant will work in residential areas across West Lothian.

We will of course review our actions and seek to learn from the experiences the last week has delivered, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank our dedicated staff for all their efforts, our residents for their patience, and to assure our community that our council will continue to do all in our power to keep our roads safe and clear.

Councillor Robert De Bold (SNP)

Executive Councillor for Environment

West Lothian Council.