Hampshire winter weather preparations
Email received in the parish office of HCCs plans and preparations to keep Hampshire moving, given the forecast for continuing cold and potentially more severe winter weather for later in the week.
At this stage it looks like we will get snow across the county on Thursday/Friday, though timings and extent of the snowfall remain uncertain at this stage. I expect the forecasts will become clearer tomorrow, as we get nearer to the arrival of the particular weather system expected to bring the snow.
Since Saturday, our winter fleet has been out continuously to treat and prepare the roads ahead of the forecast snow and extreme cold weather. They have treated Priority 1 routes four times, Priority 2 routes twice, and Community routes (which are the smaller roads to areas of community activity such as small primary schools and GP surgeries) twice, spreading around 2,000 tonnes of salt covering 8,600 miles in four days. We are due to salt the Priority 1 network again this evening. Expected salt deliveries are also coming in regularly, and our stocks are being replenished throughout this week. The extreme and prolonged cold weather has also meant that we have had to postpone some scheduled maintenance and Operation Resilience work, since the materials involved are temperature sensitive. As you might expect, the winter salting and preparation activity has also disrupted our routine maintenance work, with Skanska teams redeployed to winter work, including driving the gritters. We are however maintaining emergency repairs and attempting to deliver routine or planned smaller repairs where we can do so without compromising the winter operations.
We are confident we are doing all we can to help people get to where they need to go; but we are reminding residents to always drive according to the weather conditions, and to check travel and weather updates before they set out, including arrangements for onward travel in case rail services or flights are affected. While decisions to close schools are local ones for the headteacher to make, the County Council’s Property Services team are issuing advice to schools and other council sites on preparation and response to winter weather, such as ensuring salt is locally available and on site access ways are kept clear. The County Council emergency school closures webpage holds up to date information for parents to check on any school closures.
Our colleagues in Adults Health and Care are reminding residents to look out for elderly or vulnerable neighbours and relatives as the weather is set to stay very cold, and if anyone has concerns to call the County Council’s Adults’ Health and Care team on 0300 555 1386, during the week in working hours, (8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 4.30pm Friday) or call 0300 555 1373 out of hours and at weekends and Bank Holidays.
