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Update from City Centre and Leith Neighbourhood Manager
We are still dealing with the aftermath of unprecedented levels of snow - not since 1965 has a snowfall of this level been experienced. I will provide frequent updates here on work within the neighbourhood to deal with the results of the severe weather in our area.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any concerns. kind regards,
Mike Penny, City Centre and Leith Neighbourhood Manager
Severe weather update 15:30 Friday 3 December
We are planning next stage of response. The forecast suggests that temperatures will be around or below freezing for the next 10 days at least, so there is unlikely to be any substantial thawing of lying snow.
We have 18 Task Force operatives out today, starting off clearing access routes to schools through the area and then moving on to Sheltered Housing sites. They have also been working at the main bus stops and pedestrian crossings on the main routes. We have some help from colleagues in Waste Services who are gritting/snow clearing some parts of Leith Walk.
We will aim to clear the areas with highest footfall (initially Leith Walk through to Ocean Terminal). Task Force operatives in four teams will work from 2 starting points. The first will start at Ocean Terminal and work up towards Ferry Road. A second will work from the Kirkgate out along Great Junction Street and the last two will work from the Kirkgate up either side of Leith Walk. Snow and ice that piles at the kerbside will be collected and dumped away from the streets. The accumulation of snow on the west side of Leith Walk may take the whole weekend to fully clear.
Environmental Wardens will be out visiting shops along these routes, providing traders with the Scottish Government advice leaflet advising them to help clearing the area in front of their premises.
Severe weather update 16:00 Monday 6 December
The Task Force today cleared and gritted all school frontages, including Victoria Primary and Pilrig Park. and the section of Leith walk between Iona Street and Albert Street.
The top section of Easter Road has been tackled as far as Rossie Place was cleared by a squad from Lightways, who will continue down towards Albion Road tomorrow. They will also do some work around the top of Montrose Terrace and the London Road/Montrose Terrace junction
Task Force will continue to work on Leith Walk tomorrow. I have asked them to do some more work around the west end of Newhaven Main Street where it joins Newhaven Place.
We are looking for locations to put skips to collect bagged waste until refuse can clear the backlog of containers (this is hampered in many instances by the containers being frozen in situ with the amount of ice around the base). The advice to residents with individual wheelie bins is to use the brown garden waste bin for general waste until the waste can be collected.
Although there has been a considerable thaw the main problem now is icy pavements. We will continue to work over the weekend to tackle this with a view to getting all major routes clear. We have had some additional plant over the last two days - a mini excavator for clearing ice from pavements. Today we have two of these. One has been working on Leith Walk, the other was in Newhaven this morning.
We have received a number of requests for salt from across the area. Those received this morning will be supplied with salt tomorrow morning. It's the Roads team Christmas night out today, so I haven't got the full list of locations to hand. From memory they cover locations around Leith Links, Connaught Place, Redbraes, Dalmeny St, Albert Place, Hillside, Restalrig Road, Citadel Youth Centre and a couple of others.
Waste is a major issue. There is, as always, unlikely to be much uptake for overtime from staff over this weekend and from my drive around yesterday there seems to be little impact of the work to remove excess dumped waste from around communal bins. With the thaw it is more likely that crews will be able to lift bins and empty the contents, although again this is unlikely to have much effect until next week. We have identified a number of locations for skips for waste where households have individual wheelie bins in Bellevue, Restalrig Circus, Prospect Bank and the Quits, but not for any of the colonies or Cornhill,Ryehill etc.
This is a summary of work today:
Lightways:
Elm Row
Top of Leith Walk
Leopold Place
Brunton Place
Task Force:
Leith Walk
Duke St
Ferry Rd shops
Resalrig shops
Newhaven Main St to Asda
Portland Ter shops
Bernard St Shops
Over the weekend we are limited to Task Force. We will assess what is required but at least half the squad will need to revert to street cleaning duties.
Severe Weather update: 10 December 17.27 hrs
We are continuing to clear ice and snow from locations throughout the city centre, aided to a great extent by the thaw. The main concern now is the treacherous nature of the footpaths and we are endeavouring to get round as much as possible over the weekend as there seems to be a strong hint that the weather will get worse again later next week.
Waste, particularly trade waste, is still an issue although I think we have managed to collect most of the domestic waste across the city centre apart from individual wheelie bins. Although we have been putting skips in locations across the city so that people can dump additional waste we have not adopted this for the city centre as there are only small isolated pockets with individual bins.
We have had the use of a quad bike fitted with a snow scraper for the last day and a half. We trialled this in Abbeyhill Crescent yesterday and it seems to be effective. I think today it was working in the London Road area.
We have also offered salt to communities that wish to clear ice and snow from their local area, although the only uptake thus far for the city centre has been in Milton Street.
Today we were working in the following locations:
Task Force City Centre:
Jeffrey Street (both sides) to Cockburn Street.
Haymarket Terrace next to Apex Hotel.
Young Street.
Hill Street.
Thistle Street.
Dundas Street.
Pedestrian Crossings. (various areas).
Forest Road.
Bristo Place.
Lightways:
Top of Leith Walk
Spring Gardens
Johnston Terr
Castle Terrace (in preparation for the Farmers Market)
Mick Ferry:
Earl Grey Street
Lothian road (south section)
East Fountain Bridge
This weekend we will continue to work in the following areas:
Lightways:
one squad to check Princes, George Rose Street and Leith Street crossings first thing then to go to Dublin, Dundas and Howe Street inc Queens Street Gdns east/west.
one squad to Bank Street and then Torphichen Place Morrison Street and Dewar Place
one squad to north footway in Abbeyhill crescent
Johnston Terrace to be finished, then Castle Terrace to finish and then to Charlotte Square/Glenfinlas Street/West end area, off the main streets
Mick Ferry:
Fountainbridge area
Task Force will be reverting to street cleaning for the main part.
It has now stopped snowing and we are plannin.
Severe Weather Update from Mike Penny, Neighbourhood Manager: 10 December 17.45 hrs
Although there has been a considerable thaw the main problem now is icy pavements. We will continue to work over the weekend to tackle this with a view to getting all major routes clear. We have had some additional plant over the last two days - a mini excavator for clearing ice from pavements. Today we have two of these. One has been working on Leith Walk, the other was in Newhaven this morning.
We have received a number of requests for salt from across the area. Those received this morning will be supplied with salt tomorrow morning. I haven't got the full list of locations to hand. From memory they cover locations around Leith Links, Connaught Place, Redbraes, Dalmeny St, Albert Place, Hillside, Restalrig Road, Citadel Youth Centre and a couple of others.
Waste is a major issue. There is, as always, unlikely to be much uptake for overtime from staff over this weekend and from my drive around yesterday there seems to be little impact of the work to remove excess dumped waste from around communal bins. With the thaw it is more likely that crews will be able to lift bins and empty the contents, although again this is unlikely to have much effect until next week. We have identified a number of locations for skips for waste where households have individual wheelie bins in Bellevue, Restalrig Circus, Prospect Bank and the Quits, but not for any of the colonies or Cornhill,Ryehill etc.
This is a summary of work today:
Lightways:
Elm Row
Top of Leith Walk
Leopold Place
Brunton Place
Task Force:
Leith Walk
Duke St
Ferry Rd shops
Resalrig shops
Newhaven Main St to Asda
Portland Ter shops
Bernard St Shops
Over the weekend we are limited to Task Force. We will assess what is required but at least half the squad will need to revert to street cleaning duties.
