Council determined to get it right as another Arctic winter predicted

Gird your loins. Prepare for Armageddon. Man your stopcocks. Man your WHAT? Yes, those little metal things that control the flow of water through the underground pipes and often get frozen solid in the depths of winter. And where are they to be found? Somewhere around here, the harassed householder guesses. And why does he or she need to find it? Because he or she is practically up to the armpits in snow. SNOW - who mentioned snow? Actually, a man named James Madden of Positive Weather Solutions...and Meath County Council. Madden, who is with the non-profit organisation Exacta Weather, is predicting an early start to winter this year for many regions of the UK and Ireland. And the first signs of some moderate to heavy snowfalls may be seen as early as October or November. He's hedging his bets a bit with that "many regions". It could be anywhere. Will a few flakes fall in Ballinabrackey or Nobber, or will Summerhill or Laytown be deluged with the white stuff for Halloween? We don't know. In cheery fashion, Positive Weather Solutions says that the winter months will be colder everywhere and that some regions will experience significantly colder than average temperatures between December and March. Hot on their heels (sorry, I'll rephrase that) comes our county council. Just as we're "basking" in temperatures of 11 degrees (downtown Navan on Tuesday), the council unveils its 'Severe Weather Planning' and 'Winter Maintenance Programme' document, mainly dealing what we should do when the snow starts to fall again. Last winter, the council came in for some fierce criticism over its handling of the weather crisis. Equally fiercely, it defended itself against charges that it failed in its mission to protect the county against the worst ravages of the snow. Its officials said that it had outlined arrangements to deal with snow and ice hazards well in advance of the winter - but people just didn't take it in. And they said people were unfair in criticising staff, some of whom missed Christmas leisure time with their families in order to provide backroom organisation - not to speak of staff who were out in the worst of the weather trying to keep traffic routes open. This year, there will be no excuse. In a presentation to Meath councillors on Monday, Meath Civil Defence officer Michael Fitzsimons and executive engineer Andrew Bagnall outlined details of plans to cope with severe weather. They referred to the review by government of the national response to the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 severe weather events - 'Towards Integrated Emergency Management' - which carries 62 recommendations for action by national and local government. Meath's local authorities have had their own internal review of all aspects of their response and had an extensive input to national reviews. If the government has its way, we'll be "celebrating" Winter Awareness Week (early November) with daily tips on road safety, household, winter fuel, water supply issues and food supply. This is where girding your loins comes in. Part of the plan is to build "resilient communities" which will see grit made available at drop-off points for use by local communities; encouraging community/commercial sectors to clear snow from footpaths; and the clarification of insurance issues surrounding the clearing of same. There will also be widespread engagement with business, farming and community/voluntary bodies and Meath County Council will be organising seminars for communities for early November. Communications will be high on the council's agenda and will include live web updates and a dedicated severe weather website. In its overview of preparations, the council says it salts predetermined routes 500km in length when frost/ice is predicted. All national primary and national secondary and about 50 per cent of all regional routes are salted. About 10 per cent (by length) of all roads in the county will be treated. The motorways are looked after by private organisations. And please don't say you weren't told which roads will be salted. A map showing the routes is available online at www.meath.ie. If Lot's wife had lived off any of these routes, she wouldn't be salted, so those trying to cope with modern weather conditions should know that only those routes indicated on the map will be treated. The council has expanded its winter gritting fleet this year to 10 trucks plus one standby emergency truck, each with a salt gritter mounted and snowplough if required. Each truck covers 50km approximately with six to seven tonnes of rock salt each time there is a callout. A duty engineer will monitor 'Ice Net' decision-making system on a laptop from mid-afternoon each day to determine if and when salting is required. Now where IS that stopcock?