Elected Member Briefing - Adverse Weather Update, 19 October 2023

About this Briefing Note

Report by: David Littlejohn - Head of Planning and Development  

EMBN Number: 116 - 23  

Date: 19 October 2023 

Subject: Forecast Adverse Weather Conditions - Update  

Responsible Officer: David Littlejohn - Head of Planning and Development 

Details

Purpose

The purpose of this briefing is to provide elected members with an update regarding the actions that the Council and Tayside Contracts are taking in relation to preparing for and responding to the potential impact of Storm Babet on Perth and Kinross this week.    

Briefing Information

Following on from yesterday's briefing and the Met Office has this morning extended the red weather warning for rain further westwards into Tayside, including parts of Perth and Kinross, from 6pm tonight until 12noon on Friday 20 October.  

More details of the warning are available at UK weather warnings - Met Office. 

We can confirm that the barriers were successfully installed at Queens Bridge this morning and that all flood gates are now closed.  We will continue to monitor conditions very closely over the coming days and if we believe it is safe to reopen the bridge we will do so as soon as possible. 

The Roads Maintenance Partnership has also been arranging to distribute pallets of sandbags to key locations across Perth and Kinross.  We are expecting to receive a further delivery of sandbags tomorrow morning and have these available for distribution to key locations as required. 

A number of roads across the network have been closed due to surface water and there have been a number of trees coming down due to the strong winds. The teams are out responding to incidents as quickly as possible and where it is safe to do so are clearing the carriageways to keep as much of the network open as possible.   

Please note that Police Scotland have issued a travel warning, particularly for those areas covered by the Red Warning. 

All school lets have been cancelled for this evening in response to the Red Weather Warning and in the interests of public safety. The situation will be reviewed tomorrow in respect of any lets planned for Friday. 

Perth Crematorium will be closed for services tomorrow (Friday 20th). 

In the interest of safety for our teams and in respect of travel advice from Police Scotland we have taken the decision to suspend all environmental services across Perth and Kinross tomorrow (October 20) including bin collections and the closure of all waste recycling centres. Once the Red Weather Warning is downgraded and circumstances allow we will reopen the centres and bin collections will recommence. Residents and customers are requested to leave bins out for 48 hours afterwards and every effort will be made to collect missed bins within this period. 

All Council Early Childhood Centres (Letham, City of Perth and Goodlyburn, Inch View, Rattray and Riverside) and all Kids Clubs and Wraparound Care (Oakbank Kids Club, Milnathort Kids Club, Blair Kids Club, St Dominic's WAC, Luncarty WAC and Inch View WAC) will be closed tomorrow, Friday 20 October, given the severe weather forecast from 6pm tonight and in the interests of safety for staff and children. 

There has been unplanned power outages in some communities across Perth and Kinross. SSEN are engineers assessing the situation. Further updates can be found here Power Track (ssen.co.uk). We are aware of a power outage in Kettins and that the Community Hub has been opened as a rest centre. Council staff are supporting. 

We have additionally issued advice to staff (and line managers) regarding the rest of this week, encouraging them to consider hybrid working or other arrangements to avoid or minimise the need to travel where possible.