Staff at Caerphilly county borough council have been praised for going ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ during the recent bad weather.
Cllr Lindsay Whittle, Leader of CCBC, said, “Local councils are often an easy target for criticism when services are affected by severe weather, but our staff have clearly shown that they are prepared to pull out all the stops to limit disruption to the community. There have been many examples of employees working around the clock, in very difficult conditions to deliver frontline services and I’d like to thank them all for their efforts.”
In some cases the workforce has been involved in ‘life or death’ situations where their help enabled emergency services to access critically ill residents.
One such case was in Hollybush where an elderly gentleman with a heart defect needed immediate treatment, but his rural property was completely snowed in. Staff from the authority’s highways team carved a path through the snow with a JCB in order to allow essential medical supplies through.
Another case involved a teenager from Aberbargoed who was suffering from a series of fits, but his parents couldn’t get their vehicle out of the snow, nor could an ambulance get to the house. Again the council was on hand swiftly to clear a route to the property which enabled the ambulance crew to attend and get the youngster to hospital.
Social Services have also been providing a critical service throughout the snow period with many home carers and other frontline workers battling through the severe conditions, often on foot, to reach elderly and vulnerable clients across the community. Many other staff have been involved in less dramatic, but just as important operations, such as clearing roads and entries to fire and ambulance stations and ensuring meals on wheels depots are clear etc. We are working closely with funeral directors to clear roads around cemeteries for funerals to proceed and clearing access to doctor’s surgeries.
Cllr Whittle concluded, “I think it is important for the public to understand that when employees have not been able to carry out their normal duties they have been diverted to work on snow issues. For example, refuse collectors have been working with the snow clearing and gritting teams, social service staff who made it into their offices have been telephoning vulnerable individuals to check on what they need and organise help where necessary. The whole emphasis has been teamwork and responding to important calls for help.”
