Winter Weather Thanks from Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Following the recent severe winter weather, Dumfries and Galloway Council would like to thank all our residents and communities for their help and patience over the last week or so.
All our services have been out constantly over the wintery period and it’s been non-stop, trying to cover all of our Council provision whilst also keeping our roads clear and safe for you to travel on. Our gritter drivers were out day and night and, although this is their job, we would still like to thank them for their dedication and perseverance!
The Emergency team, made up of officers from our Council, Police Scotland, the NHS, including the Ambulance service, HM Coastguard and emergency contractors, have been in our Emergency Centre (“The Bunker”), constantly monitoring the situation and sending out alerts to the worst hit areas as appropriate.
Obviously these were our guys on the ground, but we can’t praise enough the brave members of our Services who were out and about in these extreme conditions, with particular mention to Dumfries and Galloway Police Division.
The Services were helped by both Moffat Mountain Rescue team who were out – walking – in the worst conditions to help motorists stranded on the M74 last Tuesday night, and also Galloway Mountain Rescue team who were called out in the early hours of Wednesday to help a motorist who had become stranded in her car.
We are aware that some of our services, such as bin collections, have not run as smoothly as we would have liked. This was due to unforeseeable road conditions and a number of breakdowns. To combat this we laid on extra shifts and went back to any routes that were missed over the weekend. Please bear with us, we are doing our best to get to everyone concerned.
Last, but not least, we’d like to pass on our very grateful thanks to you, our residents. We received numerous offers of support from members of the community. We were particularly grateful to drivers of 4×4 vehicles who offered their services. It’s at times like these that your community resilience really comes to the fore: whether you were out shovelling grit in the street, or caring for vulnerable neighbours, we really couldn’t have done it without your assistance.

Leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, Elaine Murray, and Depute, Rob Davidson said: “We’d like to thank everyone concerned who helped during this difficult week. Obviously Spring isn’t quite here yet, and we may face more winter weather in the next month or so, but everyone has stepped up when needed so that real emergencies were avoided.
The Public have been excellent, not only helping out where they could, but also by heading warnings and avoiding the worst affected areas when asked to do so.
Well done to all concerned.”