The damage left behind by three major storms earlier this year has forced West Lothian Council to pay private contractors to help with the clear up.
Scotland was battered by a succession of storms from last November, with high winds from Storm Arwen in November, and recent storms Dudley and Eunice causing severe damage in large parts of the country.
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And the clear up after the winter’s named storms in West Lothian has delayed work plans of the council’s NETs land and countryside teams.
The council has faced a number of emergency tree enquiries caused by the recent storms which have overtaken the routine work schedule, while private contractors have earned £16,000 helping council staff clear fallen trees.
Andy Johnston, Countryside manager, gave details of the work at meetings of the local area committees including Linlithgow, and Fauldhouse and the Breich Valley.
Meeting the Linlithgow local area committee Mr Johnston said: “We have been dealing with the fallout from the three named storms. There have been a number of trees down in the ward , and across the council area. The arborist squad has been dealing with that.
“It has had an impact on general maintenance and I’m in the process of bringing in contractors to help move the backlog. Hopefully that will be the last of the named storms.”
On a brighter note he added: “We are due to go into summer hours in March and are looking to start the summer programme of grass cutting at the end of April.”
A spokesman for the council confirmed that council arborists had been dealing with emergency tree enquiries caused by the recent storms, so were not able to undertake their normal routine enquiries which has resulted in a backlog of tree related works.
The spokesman added that a total of £16,000 was paid to contractors to come in and help clear the backlog. He added that there is money set aside with the NETs budget to cover contracting out services in the case of storms so the council had not faced extra unexpected costs.
