Borders snow misery continues

The severe weather has hit power supplies

About 5,000 homes in the Scottish Borders spent a fifth night without electricity after the area was hit again by heavy snow storms.

Scottish Power engineers have been working round the clock to restore supplies after scores of pylons were brought down in the storms.

They hope to have restored power to most homes by Saturday night, but some residents may face another night without electricity.

A spokesman said many access roads are blocked with up to 15ft of snow, hampering efforts to re-connect supplies.

"The main problem in reaching people has been packed snow.

"We have over 1,000 line workers and support staff working in the area and we are working closely with the emergency services and the local council."

He said the company, along with local authorities and the emergency services, was moving generators into hotels and community centres so people without power had somewhere to gather.

Deep snow has blocked many roads

Helicopters have been dropping supplies of fuel, bread and milk in areas which have been cut off by drifting snow, while Territorial Army soldiers have been on standby to help out.

The spokesman said: "We hope to have most of them back on by this evening but unfortunately not all of them will be.

"We are having real difficulty with access because of the snow, there is still drifting.

The company also plans to hand out "goodwill payments" to anyone whose power has been off for more than 18 hours, the spokesman added.

Responsibility question

But Michael Moore, Liberal Democrat MP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, said it was clear there was no coherent co-ordination to deal with the situation.

He said many of his constituents had not only lost electricity, but the phone and water supplies as well.

Mr Moore said: "We are going to have to a very long, hard look at this and what has been clear over the last few days is that nobody in particular has had overall responsibility.

"Somebody in the Scottish Executive has got to be put in charge of making sure we have disaster recovery plans."

People in isolated areas have been stuck in their homes

Temperatures only reached a maximum of 3C on Friday, meaning little of the snow has melted.

All schools in the Borders remained closed on Friday as they were either inaccessible or had not had footpaths or playgrounds cleared.

Scottish Borders Council says it hopes to open all schools again on Monday.

Elsewhere in Scotland, temperatures dropped to minus 18C in the central Highlands, minus 8C in Edinburgh and minus 6C in Glasgow.

Fresh snow

Forecasters say it will remain bitterly cold over the weekend and further falls of snow have been predicted.

The weather is causing ongoing travel problems, with the main A697 Carfraemill to Coldstream road remains blocked in three places.

Fresh snow falls have been making things difficult around Stranraer and parts of the north-east.