A number of recommendations have been made to Cardiff Council following an independent inquiry, which was commissioned by the Chief Executive, into the heavy snow that fell in December.
Cardiff experienced the heaviest snow in 30 years on December 17 and 20 causing disruption across the city.
As a result transport expert Brian Smith, who has advised the Government on winter disruption, was commissioned to undertake a review.
Mr Smith spoke with Councillors, officers and partner organizations as well as reviewing the media coverage and studying weather forecasts and radar to draw up his report which will go to the Executive on February 17. An action plan to address the recommendations is also being drawn up by the Council.
Mr Smith found that the snow, which fell in Cardiff during the festive season last year, was not only unusual in its severity, but that its impact was made worse as Cardiff experienced the coldest December in more than 100 years. These conditions prolonged the disruption caused to the city.
Cardiff has a winter maintenance policy which Mr Smith found to be in line with most other local authorities as is the specific snow plan that is activated when snow has fallen.
The length of road network which is pre-treated with grit both in normal circumstances and during reduced priority is also typical of local authorities in the UK while Cardiff has good arrangements for weather forecasts and has sufficient staff and gritters to cover the planned network.
Among the recommendations made are that the Council should review its policy for salt pre-treatment and the clearance of carriageways and footways and use this as an opportunity to engage more with key stakeholders such as businesses and key retailers about its winter maintenance policy and snow plans. The report also recommended that the Council consider how the basic network is kept clear during extreme weather events and work with others including the community and voluntary sectors to ensure effective future responses.
Mr Smith also advised formalizing arrangements for using staff from across Council areas in future snow events, fitting the gritting fleet with GPS so the Council can better manage its fleet and considering how community resources can be used in the event of major snow or other extreme events.
Further recommendations have been made about the inclusion of winter weather information in the Council’s monthly newspaper Capital Times each year; considering how information is provided to Councillors and supplementing the information provided on the Council website with messages on social networking sites and Twitter.
Council Leader Cllr Rodney Berman said, “The review provides a number of helpful recommendations to the Council which we are pleased to take on board and are already beginning to address in our action plan.
“It is clear from the report that Cardiff experienced an unprecedented level of snow during the run-up to Christmas with the highest snowfall in 30 years. This was exacerbated by the coldest December temperatures for more than a century which prevented the snow from melting for a number of days. We know that this led to disruption across the city which is why we were quick to commission an independent review to see what lessons could be learned, and to establish if we had appropriate measures in place.
“It is clear from this report that whilst many aspects of our readiness to respond were appropriate, there were also areas where we could have done better – such as not having enough drivers available to operate our full complement of snow ploughs. This is clearly something I regret but the key point is that the report has enabled us to learn from this so we can now put measures in place to avoid it happening again should we experience a similar level of snowfall in future.
“We will now move forward to improve our winter maintenance plans in order to reflect the recommendations of this review. Our quick action at the time means we are now in a clear position to make improvements.”
Executive Member for Traffic and Transportation Cllr Delme Bowen said, “Cardiff, as with a number of local authorities across the UK, was hit badly by the heavy snow in December and communities across the city suffered as a result.
“The review has provided us with a clear understanding of what happened during this period, what worked well and how we can best address any shortcomings to improve responses where they are needed in the future.”
A copy of the report is available online at www.cardiff.gov.uk.
