Bucks Council receives nearly 400 callouts as storms terrorise county

Bucks Council confirmed its transport team has dealt with 380 callouts during a week of chaotic weather.

In the past week three major storms have caused havoc across the country starting with Storm Dudley, then Storm Eunice and finally Storm Franklin yesterday (21 February).

Bucks Council states its team have worked round the clock to keep residents safe, since the Met Office issued rare red weather warnings in the county.

Bucks has seen extreme winds nearing 100 miles per hour and treacherous rainfall in the past few days as well.

To cope with the damaging gusts council workers and contractors have been clearing roads, dealing with fallen trees and redeploying staff where needed.

Most of the 380 callouts which Transport for Buckinghamshire (TfB) teams rushed to were clearing fallen trees.

The council placed TfB crews on continuous rotating shifts.

Ongoing clean up jobs will continue throughout the county in the coming days, Bucks Council confirms.

While some homes lost power since Friday (18 February), the council advises nearly every house is back up and running.

This strategy to deal with rarely seen high powered wind was formed over several meetings, including additional discussions held over the weekend, the local authority says.

The council has highlighted the following key steps it took to keep people safe during a unique series of storms:

-All schools, which are now on half term, were advised to close on Friday due to the revised Red weather warning

-The council closed libraries and Household Recycling Centres on Friday during the height of Storm Eunice

-Temporary short term revisions were made to some waste collection services to allow crews to manage bin collections in the very difficult conditions

-Care service managers have held regular ‘sit rep’ updates to ensure no disruption to critical services for vulnerable residents, such as care visits

-Bucks Council closed its Country Parks on Friday and are still advising people to avoid travelling to them where possible while rangers continue working to make them safe

-The local authority closed all family centres yesterday due to high winds caused by Storm Franklin.

Bucks Council Leader Martin Tett said, “I want to pay a huge tribute to all of our staff and contractors for their herculean efforts to clear debris and damage, to keep services running and to keep residents safe.

"We’ve worked round the clock holding regular meetings to ensure we have the very latest assessments of the situation to divert resources accordingly.

"As ever, our priorities have been to maintain critical services, to respond rapidly at dangerous locations such as fallen trees and to ensure the most vulnerable who rely on our services have no interruption to their care.

"We’re continuing to ask people to check on their neighbours as not everyone has access to the internet for the latest information.

"It’s been a really challenging few days, we’ve more unsettled weather to come this week, but I’m proud once again of the way our communities have pulled together in trying circumstances to look out for each other.”