Hansard

As the minister said, long-range weather forecasting is notoriously unreliable because weather patterns are influenced by many factors, including variations in sea currents. For example, the unusually southerly position of the jet stream earlier this year brought cold, wet weather to Scotland during a period in which we would usually hope to have at least a glimmer of sunshine, and the oscillations of El Niño and La Niña in the Pacific Ocean are creating unpredictable weather patterns across many parts of the globe. Indeed, we were told that this summer was due to be a barbecue summer to rival the summer of 2003, but I had only three barbecues this summer—which was still two more than the previous year—and for two of them we had to eat indoors.

Despite the unreliability of long-range weather forecasting, however, it is always better to be prepared, particularly in view of the predictions by Adrian Crocker of British Weather Services, who suggests that the coming winter will be colder than average and will follow a similar pattern to that of 2010. I hope that that prediction will be proved wrong, but we must be prepared.

We have to be ready when the weather does its worst. We experienced very cold winter weather conditions in 2009-10 and 2010-11 and, as the minister said, flooding events are becoming ever more common and more serious. We have also endured extreme high winds such as hurricane bawbag last year.

The two extreme winters prompted both the Scottish and United Kingdom Governments to assess whether resilience measures needed to be improved. The UK Government reviewed transport-related provision, including rail, while the Scottish winter review group took a wider perspective that included local authority services, pressures on the national health service and the business community, and the contribution of the voluntary sector.

Government—both local and national—plays an important role in planning for problematic weather events, but responsibility also rests with communities and individuals to be prepared for the worst. I have logged on to the ready Scotland website, which has a number of useful suggestions for individuals and businesses. I registered for the draw for a home emergency pack and trust that, if I win it, it will come signed by the minister. The website is a good initiative, but not everybody is computer savvy or even has access to information technology. Some of our citizens who are most vulnerable to inclement weather are unlikely to be able to access information by that medium, which is why a hotline for older people, for example, could be vital in times of emergency.

When severe weather strikes, the first challenge is to keep transport routes open. HGVs often present problems when there is snow and ice on roads with even quite shallow gradients. Indeed, the M74 in my constituency is prone to closure under icy conditions due to the problems that HGVs encounter.

Getting up-to-date information to travellers is vital to prevent continual build-up of stationary traffic. We know that there were major problems with information during the first day of severe weather in December 2010. Indeed, I had personal experience of that because my daughter was stuck on the M73 in heavy snow. I found it difficult to find out what was happening or to get any information to her. Since that time, improvements to the Traffic Scotland information service have been made and, as the minister said, improvements in the provision of information to mobile devices have helped with some of the issues, too.

Resilience involves keeping public services functioning when possible and keeping the public informed when that is not possible. For example, schools may be closed at short notice because it is not safe for pupils and teachers to travel to school or because low temperatures have caused heating systems to fail. However, last-minute school closures create difficulties for working parents—and their employees—especially those in occupations that come under greater pressure during severe weather, such as the NHS.

In addition to local authorities organising methods to ensure that parents get information quickly by using texts, for example, parents should be encouraged to make plans with relatives, friends, and other parents about how they will cope with a sudden school closure and about which of them may be able to take time off work perhaps to look after several children on a rota.

I also encourage workplaces to make arrangements to allow homeworking, where possible. That clearly assists people to cope with transport issues and sudden childcare problems.

Periods of prolonged low temperatures present problems for other services. During the 2010-11 Christmas and new year period, my constituency experienced less snowfall than other parts of the region but, because the ground was not insulated by heavy snow, there were a lot of problems with frozen pipes and tobies—in many cases, the latter had not been laid sufficiently far under the road surface—so many of my constituents ended up without water services for several days. There were situations in which, for example, one elderly gentleman took snow out of the garden to put in his kettle in order to have something to drink.

One problem was that Scottish Water’s call centre could not cope with the volume of calls that were coming in, and that needs to be looked at. I must say that Scottish Water’s senior management did a sterling job—they dealt with phone calls and texts right into the night during a public holiday. That was an excellent service so I have never criticised them for how they responded at that time.

People who are able to contribute to individual and community resilience should be encouraged to do so. During the previous severe winter, there was unfortunately a fair amount of disinformation around, such as the idea that, if someone cleared the snow on the footpath outside their home and somebody else then slipped and fell, the snow clearer might be held responsible and could be sued. That was a load of nonsense, but people need to be confident that if they make efforts to help themselves and their communities those efforts will not lead to unexpected prosecution.

More plentiful provision of community salt and grit bins increases community resilience so long as the contents are stored in such a way that they do not solidify. Access to the bins can be difficult, and sometimes when a person looks into the bins they can see that the salt is totally solid.

It appears that lessons have been learned from the two recent harsh winters and that additional equipment has been purchased. I saw in the Daily Mail a nice little picture showing the minister wearing a rather natty set of gloves and scarf and holding an umbrella. However, my concerns about that page are not about the sartorial elegance of the minister but about the article next to his picture.

The article indicates that, due to financial pressures, a number of local authorities are looking to cut their winter resilience programmes. The Scottish Borders Council is reportedly hoping to save £170,000 by reducing the gritting priority for 100 miles of its road network. Last year, the Western Isles Council reduced the time interval during which gritting takes place by four hours a day. Six of our councils are cutting their gritting programme and three have reduced their salt reserves, although in some cases that is because councils believe that they can access additional salt more quickly if that is required.