Scotsman Bulletin for Thursday 19 October
Scotsman Bulletin for Thursday 19 October
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin
00:10 for Thursday, the 19th of October.
00:12 My name's Dale Miller.
00:13 I'm Head of News at the Scotsman
00:15 and I'm joined by our Rural Affairs Correspondent,
00:18 Catherine Hay.
00:19 Hello, Catherine.
00:20 You seem to be down amid the worst of the weather.
00:24 - Yeah, certainly be avoiding it a little bit
00:26 here in Edinburgh.
00:29 We're going to talk through the wider impact of Storm Babbit
00:33 and how it's looking for the country.
00:35 But firstly, just to reference the front page
00:37 of the Scotsman today,
00:39 obviously the storm warning,
00:43 red weather warning referenced on the front,
00:45 but we laid on Humza Yousaf and warnings
00:48 that the council tax freeze could cost
00:51 up to as much as 417 million pounds.
00:55 This was a figure reached by the Fraser of Ballander
00:57 Institute.
00:58 It was its estimates.
01:00 Some of the conservative estimates were 250 million.
01:04 There were even some suggesting that if they wanted
01:07 to fully fund this push,
01:09 it could cost upwards of 1 billion pounds.
01:12 There's going to be plenty of negotiation.
01:14 Humza Yousaf was meeting with COSLA council executives
01:18 to discuss the issue today.
01:20 COSLA was going to meet separately on Friday.
01:23 There's plenty to play out around this
01:25 because council leaders who weren't really
01:28 given advance warning about the announcement,
01:31 not too happy about the potential consequences
01:34 and any impact it could have on services
01:36 when councils are already stretched.
01:39 Front page picture there of Joe Biden in Israel
01:42 and Rishi Sunak visiting today and tomorrow.
01:45 Catherine, I think a lot of us will be focusing
01:48 in on the weather,
01:51 even if we're in Edinburgh or Fife,
01:53 it's wet and windy outside,
01:55 but there's a red weather warning in place
01:57 and the worst of it for the Grampian area.
01:59 Can you talk us through?
02:01 - Yeah, so the red alert was issued by the Met Office
02:06 and it's in place from 6 p.m. tonight
02:09 until around midday tomorrow.
02:13 At the moment, obviously it could change.
02:15 Certainly from Edinburgh, seeing quite wet weather,
02:18 but I know from talking to some people up in Aberdeenshire
02:22 that they're already seeing the weather changing,
02:26 and we're only the morning at the moment.
02:28 There's strong winds and a lot of rain already.
02:32 There's also other warnings,
02:34 amber and yellow weather warnings
02:36 for across the UK as well.
02:37 So a lot of people will be feeling it,
02:40 probably experiencing this sort of autumn, wintry weather.
02:44 It's actually, I think it's the first red weather warning
02:49 for a few years now since Storm Dennis.
02:53 So I think there are preparations underway at the moment
02:58 to prepare for it, given the bout of extreme weather
03:02 that we're probably about to see.
03:04 Certainly up in Aberdeenshire,
03:05 where it's expected to be worse hit,
03:08 they're sort of warning people
03:10 to try and avoid traveling at this time.
03:12 The First Minister, Humza Yousaf, actually said yesterday
03:15 to people in Scotland,
03:17 "Please avoid traveling unless it's absolutely necessary,"
03:20 just given the extent of the conditions
03:22 that we're probably gonna see later on.
03:24 And I know that we've seen some footage
03:29 come through already just from contacts
03:31 and from our heritage correspondent, Alison Campsey,
03:34 and up in Stonehaven,
03:36 I mean, it's already looking quite dramatic.
03:38 The waves are reaching quite extreme heights.
03:40 And I know that our RL and I have issued a warning
03:44 to people to avoid walking along the coast
03:48 just because of that in particular.
03:50 So yeah, there are a few warnings coming in
03:54 across the country where we're starting to see
03:56 the weather reach more sort of extreme levels.
04:01 - You mentioned Alison,
04:02 she's on the ground visiting Stonehaven today.
04:05 She'll bring some live coverage
04:07 of just how people are preparing for things here.
04:10 Catherine, we know that many ScotRail services
04:14 heading to the north from places like Edinburgh
04:17 are also canceled throughout the red weather warning period.
04:21 And there are scary scenes, I think,
04:24 coming on the back of we saw the widespread flooding
04:26 just in the past couple of weeks.
04:27 So I think those images of the A9 surrounded by water
04:31 through Perthshire will have stuck in memories,
04:33 but also Storm Arwen that knocked out a lot of power
04:36 in Aberdeenshire just a couple of years ago.
04:39 Can you talk us through the preparation
04:40 from that point of view?
04:41 Are they more ready this time than they seemed last time?
04:45 - Yeah, I know that from Storm Arwen
04:49 there was widespread damage
04:50 and there were thousands of homes
04:52 that were left without electricity,
04:54 without power for, I mean, for days.
04:56 So I'm not surprised that they're sort of
04:59 a little bit more prepared.
05:00 Well, they've said they're a bit more prepared
05:01 this time around.
05:02 They certainly, speaking to the BBC this morning,
05:05 the SSCM was saying that they've certainly learned
05:09 quite a few lessons from that storm in 2021.
05:12 And I think normally they said that they usually
05:17 increase staff numbers in their contact centres,
05:20 just so that, because power cuts will be much more,
05:23 well, will be much more likely in stormy weather.
05:26 But I know that one of them saying
05:29 over the last few years,
05:31 they have been carrying out preparations
05:33 for extreme weather.
05:35 So I know that they've been cutting down trees
05:38 near pylons just to try and improve safety
05:40 in certain areas.
05:41 And also just to prevent such widespread power cuts
05:45 like they experienced during storm Arwen.
05:48 And yeah, I think like with other emergency services
05:53 and utilities companies,
05:54 they're just kind of urging people to take care
05:57 and just to contact if they're experiencing
06:02 any issues with power.
06:04 - You can read all the latest about the developments
06:07 with the weather at scotsman.com throughout today
06:10 and into Friday.
06:12 Also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
06:15 And if you are needing to travel for any reason
06:18 across the affected areas,
06:20 whether it's a red, amber, or yellow warning area,
06:23 please be safe and take the necessary precautions.
06:26 Catherine, thanks for joining us
06:29 and thanks to everyone else.
06:30 - Thanks.
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