5 January 2009
Immediate release
 
COUNCIL RESPONSE TO CRISIS TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
 
Commenting on the decision this morning (6 January) by Dumfries and Galloway council to activate the Emergency Centre and set up an emergency response team, the Leader of the Labour Group Ronnie Nicholson said, “The public will rightly ask why it has taking so long for this to kick in. It seems to me a classic case of people returning form their holidays only to discover there’s been a crisis taking place. 

“The council have been playing catch up right from the start when they were slow off the mark with starting to grit the regions roads and they have never fully got on top of it. The public call by the council leader for action from the Scottish Government over salt levels only came when we were at crisis point with one’s day supply left.

“Even now, the council’s response is full of contradictions. On the one hand, the Chief Executive is activating the emergency centre and on the other we have teachers being told by the council to drive through shocking conditions to report to schools that don’t have any pupils. It is all very well to talk about a co-ordinated response but in practise the council’s actions are totally disjointed”.

Meanwhile, Russell Brown MP and Elaine Murray MSP are continuing to call on the Scottish Government to explain why they failed to take sufficient action to secure salt supplies in Dumfries and Galloway and across Scotland.

Russell Brown MP said: “It looks increasingly clear that the Scottish Government has been caught napping. While John Swinney has been telling us there’s plenty of salt to go round, the reality is we are at crisis point in Dumfries and Galloway with only one day’s supply left.

“The Scottish Government has failed to take sufficient action to ensure we had enough salt in Dumfries and Galloway and across Scotland to get us through this prolonged cold snap. Now it is local people who are suffering from the Scottish Government’s failure to get their act together as they are forced to brave the treacherous conditions on untreated roads and pavements.”

Elaine Murray MSP said: “As far as I am concerned, we’ve been in an emergency situation for several days and this has become even more urgent since the announcement yesterday that salt supplies were at critically low levels.

“I am calling on the Scottish Government to explain how we were able to get into this position, as they should have been ready to step in and assist the Council as soon as it became clear there would a problem. We didn’t just suddenly discover we had no salt, it must have been obvious for a while that our suppliers were going to be stretched. We are now in the ridiculous position of scrambling around for salt to keep our priority routes open.”

ENDS

CONTACT – ANDREW  MACKENZIE 07769206856