Schools 'must plan to combat bad weather'
SCHOOLS should prepare for a "long hard winter" to prevent children missing out on vital studies, it has been claimed.
UUP education spokesman Basil McCrea said the weather-related closure of around 90 schools across Northern Ireland yesterday was understandable in the circumstances – but said schools must make contingency plans as there could be many similar falls of snow in the coming months.
"The principals know best as there are some very difficult local conditions, and provided it's not a recurring problem then it's probably better to err on the side of caution.
"However, if there's any ongoing disruption to children then steps will have to be taken to ensure that our schools stay open."
Mr McCrea added: "In reaction to these horrendous local conditions then the people on the ground make the decisions they see fit, but we need to make sure that children's education is not unnecessarily disrupted throughout the winter months."
DUP education spokesman Mervyn Storey said the safety of staff and pupils was paramount.
"It is a difficult balance to strike in terms of ensuring that you secure the safety of children to and from school – and I'm sure there may have been isolated incidents where a better decision could have been made – but I'd rather have a situation where we have a closure rather than a tragedy," he said.
John Wylie, of the Met Office, said the lowest overnight temperature on Monday was minus 8.9C recorded at Katesbridge in Co Down – but that it could dip even lower between Wednesday night and Saturday.
"I think there's probably going to be more or less what we've seen over the last 24 hours – further snow showers feeding in from the north and the east affecting mostly the north of Antrim and the south and east of Co Down," he said.
"There's already a fair amount of snow on the ground in some places and the chances of that melting away from the east coast are pretty small for the rest of the week. On Tuesday night we might see overnight temperatures of between minus 4C and minus 6C but towards the end of the week it could be minus 10C or lower."
The Met Office spokesman added: "There will no doubt be a lot of work done to clear snow away from the areas around schools, and I wouldn't imagine there will be a great deal more fresh snow, but you could get a couple of centimetres and unfortunately if it occurs just after the gritters have been out then that's a problem."
A spokesman for the Roads Service said they were working around the clock in the icy conditions but that there was no danger of running out of grit.
"All of our grit is sourced locally so we don't envisage any difficulties with supply. There are contingency plans in place to deal with demand for grit, whatever the weather," he said.
Gritter lorries operating in Londonderry on Sunday night were attacked by stone-throwing youths resulting in the service being withdrawn and some roads in the Creggan and Gobnascale areas remaining in a dangerous condition.
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Weather for Belfast
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
