Storm damage leaves Highland Council with £500,000 bill
Storm damage in the Highlands has landed the region’s local authority with a bill of £450,000, it has emerged.
High winds measuring up to 90mph caused fallen trees and debris to shut roads as the transport network was disrupted across the region in early December.
The severe weather, which included driving rain and snow, saw 56 schools closed and 20,000 residents left without electricity at the height of the storm after the power supply was badly hit.
Highland Council’s finance committee will be told on Wednesday that the clean-up costs are estimated to be around £450,000.
Official Margaret Grigor said that the council’s £59.6million transport, environmental and community services (TECS) budget was on course to be balanced by the next financial year, starting in April.
"However, as a result of the recent storms before Christmas, costs incurred, with further costs to be incurred, are estimated to be in the order of £450,000," she states, in a report.
TECS committee chairman Graham Phillips said the impact of last month’s adverse weather was thankfully limited because unlike major storms in December 2012 – which caused £1.5m worth of repairs to more than 20 east Highland ports – there was no high tide.
"We actually got off comparatively lightly," said Councillor Phillips. "We were lucky because the storm surge co-incided with a low tide. We go and repair the damage and sort out the finances later."
But senior opposition councillor Helen Carmichael said she was concerned about the projected overspend, particularly after the SNP/Liberal Democrat and Labour administration cancelled a scheduled TECS meeting a fortnight ago because of a lack of business.
"There is half-a-million pounds overspent and there is nothing to discuss?", said Councillor Carmichael.
"I have got the feeling that they don’t want anybody raising anything in the Highland Council chamber that might upset the applecart," she said.
But Councillor Phillips defended the cancellation.
"We didn’t have enough business to justify the cost of a meeting," he said. "We do have a high-number of ‘heavy duty’ items coming up at our meeting in February."
The future of traffic wardens in the Highlands, after Police Scotland controversially gave notice it no longer wanted to run the service, will be among the issues councillors will debate next month.
