POWYS: Storm workers thanked

 Council staff who worked tirelessly to help people during Storm Darragh which battered Powys and the rest of the country, have been thanked for their efforts.

At a meeting of the council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on Tuesday, December 10, council leader Cllr James Gibson-Watt took the opportunity to pay tribute to staff.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Gibson-Watt said: “It would be remiss if I didn’t mention the dramatic events of the weekend just past.

“Many people were without power in Powys and indeed the rest of Wales and it’s very unusual to have power outages of this length.

“There have been thousands of trees felled by the wind over the weekend.”

He pointed out that Roath Park in Cardiff which is “famous for its trees” had seen more blown over last weekend than in the previous 20 years.

Cllr Gibson-Watt said: “That indicates how severe the storm was, and I fear we may have to get used to them and deal with them as best we can as global temperatures continue to rise.

“I have to pay tribute to the staff of the authority and indeed all of the emergency services who worked miracles over the weekend.

“I would like to extend the cabinet and whole council’s thanks to those that were involved.”

Cllr Gibson-Watt added: “We’re doing our very best to get everything up and running as quickly as we can.

“We have a few days of calm weather which is very welcome and by the end of this week things will be back to normal.”

On Tuesday there were still two Powys schools closed due to “operational difficulties caused by the storm.

They were Ysgol Maesydderwen secondary school in Ystradgynlais and Llanelwedd Church in Wales primary school on the outskirts of Builth Wells which suffered severe flooding.