Red wind warning - Storm Eunice
Message from the Managing Director
Dear Colleague,
The Met Office has issued a red weather warning as Storm Eunice is likely to cause significant disruption and dangerous conditions due to extremely strong winds on Friday.
It is forecast that along with the rest of south Wales and the south west of England, the Vale of Glamorgan will experience these conditions.
SLT met this morning and following discussions with colleagues across the Council, Wales and the latest weather forecasts, I can confirm the following arrangements are being put in place for tomorrow (Friday, February 18th).To maintain the safety and security of our residents and colleagues, the Council will be operating essential front-line services only.
Working Arrangements
Unless it is essential for you to travel to your place of work as deemed by your line manager, you should work from home. I have attached our adverse weather policy and if you have any queries, please discuss these with your manager in the first instance. HR Business Partners are available to provide advice to managers where it is needed.
Schools
Paula Ham, Director of Learning & Skills, has written to headteachers to strongly advise that pupils and staff should not attend school sites tomorrow. Schools will move to on-line learning where possible. Schools will be informing pupils/parents/carers using their usual communication channels as soon as possible. All schools in the Vale of Glamorgan will be closed.
Other Council Services
The Council will be operating essential front-line services only. As such, the following services will be closed/suspended:
- Refuse & recycling collections will not take place, residents are requested not to put items out for collection tomorrow and collections scheduled for Friday will be collected on Saturday.
- Council reception areas will be closed to the public.
- Council office buildings (Alps Depot, Civic Offices, Docks Office, Ty Jenner, Hen Goleg) will be closed to staff (with emergency access only at each site).
- Social Services Day Service buildings and services closed.
- Flying Start and Families First nursery settings will be closed.
- Leisure centres will close as normal on Thursday, and re-open at 2pm on Friday.
- Public conveniences will be closed.
- Country parks and other parks will be closed where they can be secured.
- Libraries, adult education and culture settings (such as the Pier Pavilion and Arts Central in Barry) will be closed.
- The Council is recommending all Community Centres to close.
- Closure of HWRCs and bulky waste collections rearranged to Saturday.
Your manager will communicate with you if your working arrangements are required to change to support the Council in delivering essential front-line services. Depending upon the demands on our services, this may mean us asking you to support other services at a different location, being called to attend a work location during your working day or working an alternative shift than originally stated.
The Council’s social media channels and website will be updated throughout the day, tomorrow and weekend with the latest information on Council services and link to other useful information, such as travel advice and the availability of support to our communities.
Please take the opportunity to prepare your home for any potential damage that there could be from the weather. Also, I’d encourage all colleagues to look out for any vulnerable neighbours, family and friends and help secure any property that elderly or frail people can’t do themselves.
As ever, I am grateful for the work of the Emergency Planning Team who, alongside colleagues from all departments, are working hard to ensure that our residents and staff remain safe.
Take care, stay safe.
Regards,
Rob