THE BILL FROM THE CHILL

Dealing with the severe snowfall of the “Beast from the East” cost North Lanarkshire Council an estimated £1.9 million.

The figure was revealed in a report for members of the infrastructure committee – who also approved an ongoing review of the authority’s winter plans, including looking at securing snow blower equipment to deal with deep drifts, extra resources to help treat paths, additional winter-equipped 4x4 vehicles, and a written protocol for agreeing and communicating school closures.

It also came as the Scottish Government announced that North Lanarkshire will receive an additional £430,000 towards road repairs – the eighth-highest total awarded from a £10m fund shared by all 32 councils to deal with the impact of this year’s severe winter.

The “Beast from the East” snowfall, beginning on the evening of February 27, resulted in the issuing of an unprecedented red weather warning and was described as “the most significant experienced within North Lanarkshire (and across Scotland) since December 2010”.

A report noted: “The total cost across the council for the recent severe weather event is estimated at £ 1.9m, of which £ 1.4m was incurred by infrastructure during 2017-2018.

“Costs relating to the severe winter event totalled £ 1.244m within the environmental assets division, of which £750,000 was supported from an earmarked reserve.

“This was in addition to the council’s core winter activities, which had an overspend of £767,000.”

It added: “The response to the event across all council services went very well and of key significance was the ability to maintain critical services.

“Due to the extent of the event, there were always going to be issues that would emerge. A winter debrief was attended by all council services, NHS Lanarkshire and representatives from arm’s-length organisations, [and] the outcome from this was a plan detailing actions to be taken.

“This will allow improvements to be introduced prior to any future severe weather event.”

North Lanarkshire’s winter review will also include communications with council staff and Police Scotland, the latter around traffic and obstructions; developing community resilience plans for outlying areas; reviewing secondary routes, paths around schools and the grit bin network; and “greater delegation of decisions to employees ‘on the ground’”.

A further report will go to the infrastructure committee in September, with convener Michael McPake, the Glenboig councillor, adding: “I’ve spoken to all parties and arranged that we’ll start working towards that in small groups, to iron out any problems before then.”

Tommy Morgan, the Airdrie North Labour councillor, added: “One of the most significant actions is that people on the ground know best,” while Cumbernauld SNP member Willie Goldie added: “We welcome the report, including looking at footpaths and schools.”