Weather update - Friday 8 January 2010
Weather conditions: Limited snowfall has allowed wider treatment of priority 3 and 4 routes. Very cold temperatures overnight (-23 in Altnaharra). Ice now likely to be the problem. The forecast is for very cold weather over the next couple of days. Salt has a limited effect below -9 and grit will be used on the roads over the coming days.
A major focus of snow clearing has also been in freeing entrances to schools. Private contractors have provided an additional 60 vehicles to supplement the 114 available to the council for snow clearing.
Salt Supplies: A consignment of 3,400 tonnes of salt arrived at Invergordon Harbour this morning and a further 2,000 tonnes are due to arrive at Inverness Harbour over the weekend.
Schools: Every effort will be made to ensure Highland schools are able to open after the holidays on Monday 11 January, despite the adverse weather. Parents are asked to check the schools’ web site:or call the schools’ information line, which gives callers access to the latest pre-recorded message(s) from the head teacher.
The telephone number is 0870 054 6999 + the school's PIN* - List of schools' unique 6-figure PIN numbers (PDF 234 kb). Parents should also listen to Moray Firth Radio and BBC Highland on Monday for a note of school closures.
TEC Services have engaged the use of private contractors to clear access to schools. Priority is being given to secondary schools and special schools and then primary schools.
A Council spokesman said: “Every effort is being made to get schools open when pupils and staff return on Monday. We will be working through the weekend to clear roads and paths to schools and hope that most of our schools can open on Monday. Parents should keep an eye on the web site and use their school information line and those in doubt about their school opening should listen on Monday morning to Moray Firth Radio and BBC.”
The Council has 29 secondary schools with 14,767 pupils; 183 primary schools with 16,821 pupils and 5 special schools with 156 pupils. This gives a total of 31,744 pupils.
Service Centre: The Highland Council is responding to the high number of enquiries received from the public about the bad weather to open its Customers Service Centre this weekend. The Centre will be operational between 9 am – 5 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. The number is 01349 886606.
The Service Centre, which is based in Alness, has dealt with an average of more than 1,700 calls each day since Monday 4 January. This is a rise of 15%.
The public is asked to use this number if they have queries about school openings and roads and housing issues.
Councillor Carolyn Wilson, Chairman of the Resources Committee said: “At an extremely busy time staff at our service centre have been efficiently and very professionally dealing with a huge amount of calls from members of the public on a wide range of issues including transport, heating, and travel problems due to the severe weather conditions. The levels of calls have never been so high and it is a credit to all the staff that they have managed to cope so well. I would like to thank them for their hard work and assure anyone contacting the council that our priority is to deal with all calls as promptly and as effectively as possible.”
The Council operates an emergency out of hours service. This number should be used out with the opening hours of the Service Centre.
The Council’s out of hours emergency numbers are: - Social Work and TEC Services – 0845 769 7284; Housing – 0845 700 2005.