BT Openreach engineering work delayed by recent heavy snowfall

Bt Openreach has published the following declaration on their website regarding the recent heavy snowfall and the effects it has had on their engineering works:

″This MBORC declaration, due to aspects of recent severe weather, is issued as a special alert to all Communications Providers.

Following heavy snow fall Openreach is now declaring a matter beyond our reasonable control (MBORC) / force majeure event in some areas.The declaration is effective from 09:00 am on Monday 2nd February 2009. It applies to all provision and repair activities caused by the severe weather conditions in the specified areas.

The recent heavy snowfall has impacted Openreach in two main ways. Firstly, the reduced mobility of our engineering workforce and, secondly, the reduced numbers of Openreach people able to get to our control centres. This resulted in a number of missed jobs and appointments where, whilst every effort was made to contact those end users, this was not always successful.
We have increased our engineering resource capability for the rest of this week, especially in those areas worst affected, and put our control centre contingency plans into operation. The impact on service, on a regional basis, is as follows and is based upon the current seven day weather forecast.

· Scotland - impact seen in East of Scotland. We are working normally and full recovery is expected by 9th February 2009.
· Northern England - impact seen in the Pennines, Tees Valley, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Full recovery is expected by 9th February 2009.
· Midlands & Wales - impact seen in East & Central Midlands. Full recovery is expected by 9th February 2009.
· London Home Counties - impact seen in London and the Thames Valley areas. Full recovery is expected by 10th February 2009. We have declared MBORC in the following areas: Basingstoke, City, Docklands, Guildford, Heathrow, Southbank, Wembley, Westend and Westminster.
· South West - impact seen in Solent. Full recovery is expected by 10th February 2009.
· South East - impact seen in Sussex, Kent North and South London. Full recovery is expected by 10th February 2009. We have declared MBORC in the following areas: Chelmsford, Crayford, Croydon, Edmonton, Esher, Greenwich, Lea Valley, Richmond, Romford, St Albans and Watford.

We will review this situation on a day-by-day basis and will lift the MBORC in each area as soon as service returns to normal. In addition, we continue to watch the weather and its impact and will advise should we need to declare MBORC in any other areas, or if our recovery times are extended as a result.”

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Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow…again!

Exactly 2 months since the North West was last widely affected by heavy snow fall, more snow has fallen in the area, severely affecting travel across the North West. Heavy snow has caused treacherous driving conditions causing parts of the A62, A635, A66, A6024, A640, A57 and M62 to be closed and caused long delays on the M6 in the area. Drivers can check out the latest news regarding road closures on the BBC website. Domestic flights from Manchester Airport have also been affected due to cancellations at London Heathrow, also caused by the heavy snow, so passengers hoping to make domestic flights today are being told to expect 'cancellations and significant delays' . As reported in the Manchester Evening News, actress Julia Roberts was one of the thousands stranded at the airport, as her flight from India to Gatwick was diverted to Manchester.

Many schools have been forced to close today nationwide, especially in Oldham where 40 schools alone have closed down. However, Oldham City Council has been praised in their work in gritting the roads in Oldham, which helped enable drivers to travel safely across Oldham today. Oldham City Council has reportedly spent £540,000 on a large scale gritting and snow plough operation over the winter to ensure such safe travel. Mark Alcock, cabinet member for infrastructure and the environment praised the work of Oldham City Council, “They have done a terrific job and I am really proud of them”, but criticised the lack of work done by neighbouring areas, “I am really upset that, for whatever reasons, there have been problems on roads at the Rochdale and Kirklees borders”. However, this photo showing 3 cars which have slid back down a hill near our office and banged into another stationary car, suggests otherwise about how well gritted the roads in Oldham are.

Compared to the South East, the North West has appeared to come off more easily from the snow, with the South East supposedly having the worst snowfall it has had in the last 18 years, with all flights and buses being cancelled for the day. A plane from Cyprus to London Heathrow slipped off a taxiway shortly after its arrival due to the heavy snow. A BBC news broadcast about today’s snow can be viewed here. It wasn’t just Britain either, large parts of France and Italy were affected by snow too, as this news broadcast shows.

Have you been forced to stay at home due to the weather? Has this consequently affected your business? Plum Communications can help you and your business to work remotely so no valuable business time and money is not lost today.

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Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Residents of Greater Manchester today woke up to picturesque views of roads, houses, cars and fields blanketed by up to 6 inches of snow. Last night’s snow falls were supposedly the heaviest since November 1996. However, this ‘winter wonderland’ has caused major disruptions to people travelling to school and work, with traffic and public transport being affected, in particular in Middleton and Oldham.

Throughout the region drivers were forced to reduce their speeds to 15 – 20mph in fear of skidding on the roads, which in addition to the traffic caused mass delays on the roads, with cars being abandoned on the traffic gridlocked A62, A635 and A627M. Snow ploughs were in put into use on the M62 eastbound out of Greater Manchester, in order to re-open a lane. Junctions 19 (Middleton/Heywood) and 20 (Rochdale) of the M62 was closed due to 2 HGVs colliding at 19, and a vehicle careering up the embankment at 20. In one incident, a car crashed into a house in Grimshaw Lane, Middleton, but thankfully no-one was injured. Consequently, many workers had to find alternative ways of travelling into work, as buses alike also struggled to cope with the poor weather conditions.

Due to teachers struggling to get into work, many schools in the area have been closed for the day or opened later in the day. Schools which have closed down today include: Royton and Crompton Secondary School, Crompton House, St. Mary’s, Buckstones Primary School, Saddleworth Prep, South Failsworth Primary, Counthill and North Chadderton.

The weather conditions also affected trains in the area, with trains breaking down and numerous services being heavily delayed or cancelled; Manchester Airport to Edinburgh, Manchester Victoria to Leeds, to name but a few. However, these disruptions look set to be cleared up this afternoon.

Is this the last of the snow? Possibly. Oldham Chronicle’s weatherman Damien Rogers said, “There may be more snow on Thursday and it is possibly going to stay cold until the weekend”. The BBC Weather pages show that for Oldham; there may be more snow today, tomorrow will be foggy, Thursday will be very wet, and Friday will have some sunny intervals. Is it me or is the weather just too unpredictable at the moment? Is this our snow for the year? Will there still be a White Christmas?

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