The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Work after ‘the beast’ will last for weeks
Workers taken off routine jobs to tackle potholes and other damage
Fife is facing weeks of emergency road repairs thanks to the havoc wreaked by the beast from the east.
Squads of council workers are being pulled off routine jobs to deal with urgent problems, including scores of huge potholes across the region.
The cost of the damage is still to be tallied as numerous incidents are still being reported.
The council’s roads network manager Kevin Smith said: “There’s going to be a massive push to repair all the damage caused in the last few days. It’s going to take weeks.”
Last week’s blizzards and storm-force winds were followed by torrential rain and flooding, including in Rosyth where a public meeting has been called.
Squads of council workers are to be pulled off routine construction jobs to carry out emergency repairs following last week’s freak weather bomb.
The so-called beast from the east wreaked havoc across much of Scotland as high winds and heavy snow were followed by torrential rain and flooding.
Many roads and pavements have been left badly damaged in the wake of the storms and Fife Council has warned the damage will take weeks to fix.
The cost of repairs is still being tallied as reports of damage across the region continue to pile in.
Kevin Smith, Fife Council’s lead roads network manager, said: “There are going to be numerous instances of that around Fife.”
He added: “There’s going to be a massive push to repair all the damage caused in the last few days. It’s going to take weeks.
“There’s a national drive at senior executive level and a lot of construction works will be postponed and squads pulled into emergency action.”
A number of places found themselves snowed in during last week’s blizzards and the start of this week saw serious flooding in parts of the region, including Rosyth, East Wemyss, Cupar and St Andrews.
At the height of the emergency, tens of thousands of people turned to Fife Council for information on school and road closures, bin collections and the effect of the weather on many other services.
Provost Jim Leishman said the increase in the use of the local authority’s social media sites had been staggering.
“More than 60,000 people logged on to the Fife Direct website,” he said.
In addition, 10,500 new people started following the council’s social media channels, bringing the total to 81,000.
Around 650,000 people actively engaged with the local authority’s posts on Facebook and a video showing director of education and children’s services Carrie Lindsay explaining why Fife’s schools remained closed on Monday was viewed more than 18,000 times.
“Our tweets appeared three million times and people also got involved online,” Mr Leishman said.
There’s going to be a massive push to repair all the damage caused in the last few days. It’s going to take weeks. KEVIN SMITH FIFE COUNCIL