Moray Council launches winter resilience campaign
Moray Council has started its winter resilience campaign by supporting a community resilience booklet being sent to all households.
The booklet is a joint venture with the Joint Community Council of Moray supported by Moray Council’s Community Support Unit, funded by SSEN Local Authority funding for Emergency Planning. It’s a one-stop shop for advice during an emergency event.
The information includes adverse weather advice, how to prepare for winter, useful contacts and provides space for household specific information like emergency contacts. The booklet will be available online here.
Throughout winter the council is also committed to providing regular advice on social media for driving in winter weather, gritting updates and schedules, recycling over the holidays and money advice.
Key advice is available on ready.scot all year round on helping individuals and businesses to be as resilient as possible in the event of an emergency. Moray Council also encourages signing up to receive emergency alerts from their services status portal, which advises of service disruption. As well as the Priority Services Register for vulnerable residents in case of utility outages.
Winter maintenance has already started in Moray with 72 winter actions carried out, 335 tonnes of salt used, and 1,916 miles of road already treated since the start of the season in October 2023.
To gather data, 25 weather stations are monitored round-the-clock and last year (2022/23) Moray Council treated 40,691 miles of priority one roads; used 14,784 tonnes of salt; recorded road surface temps as low as -13.3 Celsius on 12 December 2022; and carried out 1,486 winter actions.
Full details on Moray Council’s winter maintenance plan is available online, alongside an interactive map of scheduled gritting, grit bin locations and options to request grit bin refills.
Council Leader, Cllr Kathleen Robertson, launched the 2023/24 campaign saying: “Having just seen the devastating impacts from Storm Babet I think adverse weather events are in all of our minds. It made many of us consider how ready we would be if poor weather impacted us directly. How prepared are we to protect our homes and stay safe?
“The booklet created in collaboration with the Joint Community Councils is being delivered to all households in Moray and gives advice to help us make sure we’re as prepared as we can be if the worst was to happen. This is about making sure communities are supported and feel confident in their capabilities to respond to an emergency.”
“I’d urge everyone to keep an eye out for these coming through your door and on the council’s social media channels throughout winter for information and advice.”
Vice-chair of the Joint Community Councils of Moray, Jim Patterson, added: “We’ve seen a huge increase in interest in community resilience over the last year with communities working with Moray Council’s Community Support Unit to develop community resilience groups and plans. It’s reassuring to know Moray communities are stepping up their responsibilities and are becoming aware of what they can do in the event of an emergency.
“We can always do with more support and if anyone would like to get involved with their own community resilience we’d love to hear from them through their community council.”