Storm Eunice has been declared a major incident by the Avon and Somerset Local Resilience Forum due to the potential for severe disruption.
A red weather warning has been issued by the Met Office for extremely strong winds between 7am and midday on Friday 18 February for coastal areas of Somerset with an amber warning for strong winds issued for South Somerset and other parts of the South West between 5am and 9pm.
The storm has the potential to cause significant disruption and dangerous conditions along the length of the west coast of Somerset through the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary into Gloucestershire.
The Environment Agency has issued a flood warning for Severn Beach and flood alerts for Porlock Weir, along the Severn between Avonmouth and Sharpness and along the Avon into Bristol. You can check your area’s risk of flooding on their website.
What actions are we advising?
For your safety, please avoid travelling on Friday morning wherever possible and to follow weather and travel bulletins on local radio or check on local media websites.
Somerset County Council has also recommended that all schools, early years settings and colleges will be closed on Friday 18 February.
Our offices, including Petters, will be closed while sites such as Ninesprings Café and Cartgate Tourist Information Centre will also close. We are asking residents to please avoid visiting our countryside sites. The scheduled performance tomorrow evening at the Octagon Theatre has also been postponed.
Somerset Waste Partnership is suspending all tomorrow’s waste collections – recycling, rubbish, garden waste, clinical and bulky.
It will also be closing the ten recycling sites scheduled to be open tomorrow (Yeovil, Frome, Taunton, Minehead, Poole (Wellington), Bridgwater, Highbridge, Dulcote, Chard and Somerton). You can find the full messaging Below.
Emergency services, local authorities, National Highways and other voluntary and statutory agencies are on stand-by to put well-rehearsed plans into place.
We are advising the public that they can report trees fallen into a major road to National Highways and on local roads to Somerset County Council. We are also advising residents to please call 999 if there is an immediate risk to safety such as a fallen live power cable.
Summary
- All waste collections will be suspended tomorrow (Friday 18 Feb) in light of the risks posed by Storm Eunice.
- Rubbish collections will be returned for this Saturday (19 Feb), recycling and clinical waste collections next Friday (25 Feb).
- This is a changing situation and the latest information will be on the SWP website with a clear link from the top of the homepage – this will be the best place for members and the public to get information, rather than directly from individual SWP officers.
In response to Met Office weather warnings issued regarding Storm Eunice, SWP is suspending all tomorrow’s waste collections – recycling, rubbish, garden waste, clinical and bulky.
We will also be closing the ten recycling sites scheduled to be open tomorrow (Yeovil, Frome, Taunton, Minehead, Poole (Wellington), Bridgwater, Highbridge, Dulcote, Chard and Somerton).
This is a decision based on health and safety risks to staff and the public in what is a potentially very serious and unpredictable weather event.
By making an early call we hope to get information out to the public early, minimise confusion and reduce numbers of waste containers out in the high winds.
Residents scheduled to have a collection are asked not to present their recycling or rubbish for collection tomorrow.
Missed rubbish collections will be returned for on Saturday 19 February. Missed recycling and clinical waste collections will be returned for next Friday, 25 February.
Garden waste collections scheduled for tomorrow will be suspended until subscribers’ next scheduled collection day.
We expect all 16 recycling sites to be open on Saturday and Sunday as usual – though we will keep this under review.
We will be issuing information to the media shortly and sharing it through our social media channels. Customer Services teams are also being briefed.
The latest information regarding return collections and recycling site opening will be added to the SWP website. This will be accessible from the homepage somersetwaste.gov.uk
We would request that you sign-post members of the public to the SWP website. This will also be the quickest way for members to get accurate information, rather than directly from officers who are likely to be involved in operational issues throughout tomorrow.
Information will also be shared through the well-followed SWP Facebook and Twitter accounts @somersetwaste
We thank you for your patience and understanding.
Somerset Waste Partnership