High winds hammer Arran as winter bites
Arran felt the full brunt of Storm Franklin at the start of the week when high winds and snow caused widespread damage and disruption during a ‘perfect storm’ of events.
After avoiding most of the storm damage experienced in the UK from storms Dudley and Eunice just days before, there was no escaping the low pressure system named Storm Franklin by the Met Office.
It passed over Arran heading eastwards through Sunday night and into Monday morning bringing high winds estimated at over 100 mph to parts of Arran.
A peak gust of 91mph was recorded in Sannox and 80mph at Brodick pier, however, a resulting power failure meant that later high winds were not recorded by weather stations.
The turbulent weather saw Scottish and Southern Energy engineers working through most of the early morning hours to restore power to the villages of Brodick, Corrie and Sannox.
Equally, council clean-up teams spent hours on Monday cleaning up fallen debris and branches which were scattered over most roads all over the island.
North Ayrshire Council workers were also out in force clearing roads of snow and cutting down trees which had blocked both major and minor routes on the island.
The speedy response of the council workers was praised at the online meeting of Arran Community Council.
Rosslyn Mills, operations support officer at the council, said: ‘It was a perfect storm of events which put us all to the test. It is nice to get some positive feedback for their work which I will relay back to them.’
Some larger trees were blown over in Brodick, and one presented a threat to a house as it hung perilously above the rooftop, but these were dealt with and serious damage and disruption was diverted.
Errant windblown garden sheds were also reported around the island with the most significant being the Arran Bike Hire shed on Brodick shorefront which had its roof blown off and left wrecked.
Remarkably the bikes inside were unscathed and are kindly being stored by Arran Active until owner Emma Tracey can rebuild.
‘It was a bit of a nightmare,’ she said, ‘but the folk at Arran Active were wonderful.’
Emma is planning to reopen in the spring as usual. In addition to the damage to trees and properties, Storm Franklin also caused ferry disruption across the CalMac network with all sailings cancelled on Sunday on the Ardrossan to Brodick route, but a partial service resumed later on Monday.
Disruption continued on Tuesday with high winds only allowing 70 per cent of the sailings to go ahead.
An addition sailing at 8.15pm was scheduled from Ardrossan to reposition the boat so that it could berth in Brodick overnight.
Wednesday saw further disruption with high winds causing the cancellation of sailings throughout the day.
At the time of going to press, Thursday has yellow weather warnings for wind and snow as the next named storm, Gladys, is expected to make landfall.
The quartet of storms, all within quick succession in the space of two weeks, are not the last of the expected winter weather.
The long-term forecast predicts a continued period of high winds and low temperatures averaging at about six degrees for the following two weeks.
The next storms, should they have the potential to cause an impact, will be named Herman, Imani and Jack.
Brodick mum at her wits end with ferry disruption.
A young mum from Brodick is at her wits’ end with ferry disruption and NHS cancellations which have delayed her young son’s hospital appointment eight times.
Gillian and Iain MacLean, and their three children, nine-month old Max, Grayson aged two and five-year-old Noah, have endured months of delay to see a specialist at Crosshouse Hospital owing to five cancelled ferries and three appointments cancelled by the hospital itself.
According to Gillian, her youngest son Max was due to see a specialist at seven weeks old but after the numerous cancellations and rescheduling, he will be 11 months old by the time he is able to attend his appointment.
Gillian describes the continued postponements as frustrating and said that, despite making various efforts, such as trying to catch the ferry the day before an appointment, the unlucky series of events has resulted in the missed appointments.
She also says that this has caused frustration for hospital staff who she feels have lost their patience with her on a few occasions believing that she has not made enough effort to attend her appointments.
Gillian said: ‘Local practitioners and medical staff completely understand island circumstances and have been brilliant with scheduling appointments and changing circumstances but this has not been the case with mainland appointments.
‘I understand that the NHS is struggling but in instances of missed appointments, and particularly repeated missed appointments, I feel like some NHS staff have lost their compassion and understanding for patients who have to rely on the ferry service from Arran.
‘The uncertainty about whether a ferry is going to sail or not has meant that I have packed bags and made arrangements for the whole family to visit the mainland, only to be told at the last minute that the appointment or ferry has been cancelled.
‘The unreliability of the ferry and the rigid appointment schedule of mainland hospitals do not work well together and this has caused the disruptive and frustrating situation we find ourselves in.’
Gillian has some health concerns herself, and has missed two of her own mainland appointments due to ferry cancellations.
Last November the family were evacuated to Crosshouse Hospital twice in the same month when two of the children had serious medical issues which necessitated helicopter flights to the mainland.
A CalMac spokeswoman said: ‘We will do everything possible to make sure islanders get to medical appointments on the mainland, and I am really sorry to hear that this family has missed these due to ferry disruption.
‘Anyone struggling to get on a sailing should speak to our port staff, who will ensure they get onto another sailing.
‘Our urgent medical appointment protocol means that even if a sailing is full, we will get the patient to where they need to get to using taxis.’
Joanne Edwards, NHS director of acute services, said that due to patient confidentiality they were unable to provide any information but added: ‘NHS Ayrshire and Arran is committed to providing safe and effective healthcare and treatment for our population.
‘We would encourage the patient to make contact with their care team to discuss any concerns,’ she added.