Aberdeenshire winter weather updates
UPDATE: Wednesday, January 7 - 5.30pm
A reminder that a YELLOW weather warning for snow and ice remains in place until midday tomorrow (Thurs) with further snow and ice likely to bring further disruption this evening and overnight.
While there are currently no weather warnings thereafter for the rest of the week, overnight temperatures are expected to continue to drop significantly, which may lead to icy conditions in areas which have seen some thaw during the day.
Roads
Our roads teams have again been making good progress across Aberdeenshire today – albeit some routes are proving challenging with wind causing further drifting which we continue to tackle.
A wide range of additional kit, including mutual aid equipment from AMEY and other councils has been deployed across region where it is most needed – this includes both big kit such as snow blowers and smaller equipment such as pavement clearers which is really helping us.
Primary routes are clear – with exception of snow routes – main connecting routes between settlements are passable with care but perhaps not to full width.
Crews are also making good inroads into clearing smaller blocked routes where they have been logged with us and we’re pro-actively identifying additional cut-off areas as a matter of priority.
A reminder that you can see a map pf known issues and log others on our https://fix.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/around?lat=57.30906&lon=-2.35225&js=1&zoom=0&filter_category=Other%20(Winter%20Maintenance)&sort=created-desc&status=open,closed,fixed
Schools
A reminder that Aberdeenshire Council has reverted to local decision-making to ensure where schools can open safely, they do - although we anticipate this will be a limited number.
We do already have a large number of schools confirming closures or partial closures tomorrow - https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/school-closures
Headteacher decisions will be based on a range of factors impacting our schools’ ability to operate safely. This includes the ongoing weather warning and related impacts on the road network, staff and pupil travel and school facilities.
Health and Social Care
All main vaccination centres in Aberdeenshire, except Huntly, will be open on Thursday 8th January from 0845-1600.
Those clinics which usually open later on a Thursday - Stonehaven, Garioch and Banchory will contact those booked in after 1600 and reschedule/bring appointments forward
Please be aware that car parking and pavement conditions on and around our sites may be impacted by snow and ice.
If patients wish to reschedule, please contact 01224 555333.
The Shingles/Pneumococcal clinic due to be held at the Maud Resource Centre has been cancelled due to the car park conditions, our team will be in contact with these patients to reschedule.
Please be aware that staffing will be limited and we would ask for your patience as our teams work to get you seen.
Service Points
Inverurie Service Point will remain on reduced opening hours tomorrow (08/01) from 10am – 4pm.
Useful council contacts
For out of hours, evenings and weekends view our emergency contact numbers
Please phone the appropriate number for your query. The lines are open from 8.45am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Calls to these numbers are charged at local call rates. Please confirm with your own provider for specific call charge.
Automated Telephone Payment 0300 456 0634
Benefits 03456 08 12 00
Council Tax, Business Rates and Payments Due 03456 08 12 01
Education 03456 08 12 02
Housing 03456 08 12 03
Planning and Building Standards 03456 08 12 04
Roads, Parks and Open Spaces 03456 08 12 05
Social Care 03456 08 12 06
UPDATE: Wednesday, January 7 1pm
There is a YELLOW weather warning for snow and ice running through to midday on Thursday (January 8) with further snow and ice likely to bring further disruption on Wednesday.
While there are currently no weather warnings thereafter for the rest of the week, overnight temperatures are expected to continue to drop significantly, which may lead to icy conditions in areas that thaw during the day.
Customer Services continue to support local residents with a range of queries, many related to winter issues, but also a high percentage of business as usual.
Service Points remain open to support customers who are able to attend in person, with web chat also being well utilised.
Customer Services are liaising with roads, waste etc regarding their priority workloads and continuing to keep customers updated of progress as we are aware.
Customers should continue to follow the guidance available on our website relating to severe weather https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/communities-and-events/safety-and-emergencies/weather-emergencies
Schools
Following a blanket decision on school closures for the last three days, parents and carers will be contacted directly via their usual channels for whether schools and council-run nurseries will be open or closed on Thursday and Friday.
Aberdeenshire Council has reverted to local decision-making to ensure where schools can open safely, they do - although we anticipate this will be a limited number.
Headteacher decisions will be based on a range of factors impacting our schools’ ability to operate safely. This includes the ongoing weather warning and related impacts on the road network, staff and pupil travel and school facilities.
You can also view the latest decisions on our website at https://online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/school-closures
Please note the website will clear at 4pm each day with information for the following day.
Roads
Our roads teams supported by contracted farmers, contractors, support agencies and volunteers continue to focus on keeping roads clear and increase our push into towns and onto minor routes and local trunk roads to aid connectivity within our communities.
We have also redeployed 80 waste personnel and around 90 landscape staff where possible, to help clear footpaths, focusing on key establishments like sheltered housing schemes and care homes – again, we expect to see real progress being made in the coming days.
Currently we have 64+ drivers on rota to provide seven day per week cover for our 32 primary routes with additional drivers brought in throughout the day to support our operations. We have the following equipment in operation across Aberdeenshire:
· 32 primary gritters
· 12 secondary
· 20 town gritters
· 2 tractor-mounted snow blowers
· 47 footway gritters
Support
· 120 farmer plows
· 50+ additional contractor plows
Mutual Aid support
AMEY has been quick to respond to our approach for mutual aid with 12 pieces of additional plant now delivered and operating including snow blowers, tractors with ploughs and salt spreaders. We’ve also brought in a snow cutter from Tayside Contracts and have a locally-sourced snow blower in operation as well.
Interactive Map
Due to the ongoing snow event, we have made updates to our FixMyStreet platform which make it easier for people to report winter-related road issues that we might not already know about.
This can be done by submitting a report and selecting Winter & Gritting – Other (Winter Maintenance) from the available options.
Please be aware that, due to the weather, we are currently dealing with a high volume of enquiries. These are being assessed and addressed on a priority basis.
Waste and recycling
Bin collections will be attempted in Fraserburgh, Macduff, and Banff. Black lid bins will also be attempted for Laurencekirk and trade waste for Banchory. For all other routes, residents can take bins back in.
When conditions do improve, we will look at the missed collections along with our staff and vehicle resources to determine where it is practicably possible to return for bins.
With thanks to the snow clearing efforts by our dedicated staff, all household recycling centres opened today from 9am. Please take care on the access road to Peterhead’s recycling centre as it continues to be cleared.
Members of our waste and recycling team have also been redeployed to help the Roads team as well as support the more vulnerable such as helping to clear access to local care homes at Deveron Court Turriff; Forbes Court New Pitsligo; Banchory’s Dalvenie Care Home and Hanover Court Sheltered Housing; Stonehaven’s Carnegie Care Home and Eden Care Home; Portlethen's Glebe Court; Westhilll’s Blackhills Care Home; and Laurencekirk’s Mearns Care Home and more.
Health and Social Care Partnership
The weather continues to impact on service delivery, and our amazing teams are doing all they can to keep supporting people.
Vaccination Clinics are closed today, and we are assessing our ability to re-open safely for patients and staff. Keep an eye on our social media channels for updates.
Home Care teams are working to complete as many visits as possible, and we are very grateful to families for the support.
GP Practices are working as best they can to get people the care they need. Many GP practice teams are working remotely so that they can continue to provide appointments over the phone or online.
Our Minor Injury Service is operating although with reduced capacity due to staffing issues.
General advice
For more information and to access local preparedness resources, visit: https://publications.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/winter-weather-advice
To see our planned gritting for each day, go to: https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/roads/winter-maintenance/gritting-routes
Stay informed – follow trusted sources like council websites and social media channels for updates and advice:
· https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ opens in a new tab
· https://www.sepa.org.uk/ opens in a new tab
· https://powertrack.ssen.co.uk/powertrack opens in a new tab
General advice for road users
• Plan ahead and avoid unnecessary travel
• All road users should consider if they really need to travel during adverse weather.
• Consider delaying travel until conditions improve
• If you are travelling on the roads, prepare yourself and your vehicle for the conditions
• Ensure your mobile phone is charged and plan your journey, including an alternative route
• Have sufficient fuel, warm clothing, food and water in case you’re delayed
TUESDAY, JANUARY 6 - 6PM
We continue to be in the Met Office amber warning with medium snow impacts over the next 24-36 hours.
Teams from our Children’s Services and Health and Social Care Partnership are focusing on known vulnerable people within our communities, while the council is also monitoring specific issues of particularly vulnerable individuals or urgent cases and will signpost support and respond where we have resources available.
Roads
Our roads teams supported by re-allocated staff and various contractors, farmers, support agencies and volunteers continue to focus on keeping roads clear and increase that crucial connectivity within our communities.
Live Life Aberdeenshire
Due to the severe adverse weather, any LLA facilities hire sessions which have been cancelled – whether by the hirer or as a result of facilities not being open – will be credited in full. Once the adverse weather has passed, we will issue a credit note for the affected sessions.
We understand that cancellations may be an inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding at this time. Should you have any questions or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our support teams. You can also speak to staff at the site where your hire was due to take place or email us at ecs.hires@aberdeenshire.gov.uk
Service Points
Due to the adverse weather conditions, Inverurie Service Point opening hours will be 10am to 4pm tomorrow.
Housing
During this period of cold wintry weather, our Housing Service is urging tenants to protect their home and belongings from the risk of frozen and burst pipes. If you're away, consider leaving the heating on low (or arrange for your system to be drained via Housing Repairs by calling 03456 08 12 03. If pipes do freeze, turn off the stopcock and call Housing Repairs.
If a pipe bursts, turn off the stopcock, open cold taps, switch off heating/electrics if affected, warn your neighbours and call 03456 08 12 03.
Escalation to a major incident
By way of explanation, the decision to escalate to a major incident enables us to focus attention on the emergency response, prioritise and reallocate staff and resources and work efficiently with partners to protect life, maintain essential services and support community resilience.
It is particularly important to do this when we are seeing such serious disruption on our residents welfare, our infrastructure such as the roads network and essential services.
A key element of the process is that we can suspended or scale back non-critical work so that officers and specialist staff can be redeployed to essential response functions.
Our emergency plans identify which services and teams are needed to support the response, ensuring focus and capacity are directed where they are most needed. It also helps us to access wider support from governments and community groups where required.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 6 - 1.15PM
We are looking at a prolonged period of significant impacts and as of today Aberdeenshire Council has declared a major incident.
There is a Met Office AMBER weather warning for heavy snow today covering much of Aberdeenshire and north-east Scotland from 11am to 7pm.
• Travel delays on roads are likely, stranding some vehicles and passengers
• Some delays and cancellations to rail and air travel are likely
• There is a good chance that some rural communities could become cut off
• Injuries from slips and falls are likely on icy surfaces
• Untreated pavements and cycle paths likely to be impassable
• There is a good chance that power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage
There is also a new YELLOW weather warning for snow and ice between midnight tonight (Tuesday) and midnight tomorrow with further snow and ice likely to bring further disruption on Wednesday.
Aberdeenshire will continue to experience heavy snowfall today and overnight – some of which will fall as icy rain – which has the potential to cause further disruption.
We appreciate that this is a very challenging time for many of you and particularly those living in our most rural locations and smaller settlements – and our teams are working to support individuals who are struggling.
If you can, please look out for each other - check on neighbours – especially those who are elderly, vulnerable or living alone.
ROADS
Our roads teams are focusing efforts on our primary roads network which is helping to keep our communities open and stay connected, and to ensure vital food deliveries and other supplies continue to come in. We’ve also begun treating secondary routes and also some of the minor roads which connect our smaller settlements across Aberdeenshire.
We have brought in additional equipment as a result of a request for mutual aid from other local authorities including several snowblowers which is really helping us clear routes which simply cannot be ploughed. The A952 Toll of Birness route was reopened yesterday (Mon) and we have also cleared the route into Collieston which had been cut off and we will monitor that for any drifting. We have cleared a route for pedestrian at old Portlethen village although vehicular access cannot be provided at this time.
Landscape Services crews are supporting our clearing operations and again we wish to thank all our staff, contractors, farmers, volunteers and the wider community for all the sterling efforts you continue to undertake during this very challenging spell of weather.
One key aspect of our roads treatment is the move to grit only on all surfaces over the coming days to ensure maximum mechanical grip rather than trying to melt it with salt. We have good salt reserves and we will also be bolstering our current salt reserves with 4,000 tonnes arriving by boat tomorrow and a further 9,000 tonnes in due course.
SCHOOLS
Teams are continuing to evaluate the ongoing situation and considering all the factors including travel conditions, staffing, buildings and facilities. An update will be provided as soon as possible this afternoon.
WASTE COLLECTIONS
Bin collections will be attempted in Fraserburgh, Macduff, Whitehills, and Banff today. For all other routes, residents can take bins back in.
Our staff have again, this morning, been clearing snow at household recycling centres across Aberdeenshire. For now, Banchory, Fraserburgh, Huntly, Inverurie, Laurencekirk, Macduff, Portsoy, Stonehaven, Turriff, and Westhill household recycling centres are open.
We will close our cleared recycling centres at 3pm today to allow our staff to get home safely. All other household recycling centres are closed, and we will update if more are able to be cleared of snow.
When conditions do improve, we will look at the missed collections along with our staff and vehicle resources to determine where it is practicably possible to return for bins.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as this winter weather continues to cause disruption to recycling and waste services.
HOUSING
Teams are prioritising emergency repairs to keep everyone safe. Routine appointments this week may be delayed, but we’re still booking new appointments for dates beyond next week.
HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE
All Aberdeenshire Vaccination Centres remain closed today.
Peterhead Minor Injury Unit is closed today (Tues) due to staff being unable to travel – we would advise keeping an eye on our social media channels for further updates - www.facebook.com/AbshireHSCP
While we are experiencing some staffing issues within our hospitals, we are actively redirecting staff to provide support and services are continuing. A huge thank you to all of the staff, volunteers and emergency services working to look after everyone.
GP practice capacity is significantly reduced and people should continue keeping an eye out for local updates for the most up-to-date picture.
For more information and to access local preparedness resources, visit: https://publications.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/winter-weather-advice
To see our planned gritting for each day, go to: https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/roads/winter-maintenance/gritting-routes
Stay informed – follow trusted sources like council websites and social media channels for updates and advice:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/
https://www.sepa.org.uk/
https://powertrack.ssen.co.uk/powertrack
General advice for road users
• Plan ahead and avoid unnecessary travel
• All road users should consider if they really need to travel during adverse weather.
• Consider delaying travel until conditions improve
• If you are travelling on the roads, prepare yourself and your vehicle for the conditions
• Ensure your mobile phone is charged and plan your journey, including an alternative route
• Have sufficient fuel, warm clothing, food and water in case you’re delayed
MONDAY, JANUARY 5
Across the region there remain weather warnings in place for ice and snow.
As a result, many of our services continue to be disrupted and teams across the council and health & social care are working extremely hard to mitigate the impacts on citizens.
ROADS
Our roads teams continue to focus efforts on keeping our primary routes (about a third of our extensive road network) as clear as possible.
However, many routes are only passable with extreme care, and we would urge people to only travel if absolutely necessary.
Many of our gritter drivers have been working long shifts since before Hogmanay to prepare for the snow and the impacts and we will need to ensure they get the rest and recuperation they need to be able to keep us and them safe. Our thanks to all of them for the incredible work they continue to do.
SCHOOLS
Teams are evaluating the ongoing situation and considering all the factors including travel conditions, staffing, buildings and facilities.
WASTE COLLECTIONS
Staff are working hard to get snow cleared at household recycling centres across Aberdeenshire. For now, Huntly, Fraserburgh, and Macduff household recycling centres are open. Inverurie and Westhill household recycling centres are expected to open around 12.30pm.
All other household recycling centres are closed, and we will update if more are able to be cleared of snow.
Waste collections have been suspended. Please keep an eye on our website and social media channels for updates.
HOUSING
Teams are prioritising emergency repairs to keep everyone safe. Routine appointments this week may be delayed, but we’re still booking new appointments for dates beyond next week.
HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE
All Aberdeenshire Vaccination Centres will be closed today and tomorrow.
GP Practices across the region are working with reduced capacity and people should keep an eye out for local updates for the most up to date picture.
Homecare Teams are working to reach the most vulnerable clients wherever possible and will remain in contact with families.
Our Community Nursing Teams are also supporting the most vulnerable clients wherever they can.
A huge thank you to all of the staff, volunteers and emergency services working to look after everyone.
Please note: Our Contact Centre is experiencing high call volumes, so please bear with us if it takes a little longer to get through. Thank you for your understanding - we’ll do everything we can to catch up as quickly as possible while putting safety first.