City gets a storm warning

Experts have warned that stormy weather poses the biggest threat to Leicester's roads and buildings at a major conference on climate change.

Damage caused by high winds, snow and flooding have cost the city more than £2.2 million in repairs in the past eight years.

Matthew Owen, a council project officer, has been investigating how vulnerable the area has been to extreme weather, how it was dealt with and what costs were involved.

Mr Owen said: "I think our biggest risk could be a storm or high winds.

"Flooding is being looked into by all councils, but I want to raise more awareness about storms for Leicester.

"It is all about generating community resilience.

"Leicester is not like Gloucestershire in the sense that when it last flooded, the water drained out into the flood plains around the city, and although these were fuller than usual, they were not catastrophic."

For his report, Mr Owen searched the Leicester Mercury's archives from January 2000 to July 2008, for articles on weather events.

In recent times, the paper has reported major damage caused by the weather, including when the roof blew off a hotel near the Walkers Stadium in 2007.

Of the 102 stories Mr Owen looked at, 52 per cent were about storms or high winds.

During that period, storms and high winds triggered 12 emergency responses in the city, various school closures and costs of £52,400.

Uprooted trees caused 2,100 emergency responses and a cost of £875,000.

Flooding caused damage to roads and buildings at a cost of £895,000, and meant 3,000 emergency responses.

He also identified that heatwaves in the last eight years, in Leicester, caused an increased mortality rate and health problems.

Snow and ice caused cracks in roads, which led to 270 pothole claims against the council, at a cost of £369,000.

Mr Owen used this information to draw up a "risk register" of the three biggest threats to the city in terms of climate change.

The risks were heavy rains, high winds and substance damage (for example, the damage caused by shifting tree roots).

The findings were put forward at the Adaption 2009 climate change conference, at the Ramada Jarvis hotel, in Granby Street, Leicester, yesterday.

Delegates from across the country listened to presentations and workshops which outlined what needs to be done locally to stop the effects of climate change.

Councillor Ross Wilmott, leader of the city council, said there were some convincing arguments given to the scale of the problem of climate change.

"The questions about whether climate change is an issue have gone," he said.

David Strahan, an expert in how the decrease of available oil in the world affects councils, also spoke yesterday.

He said: "Councils must focus on private and public transport.

"Biofuels are inadequate – a better idea would be to charge fleet vehicles via wind turbines – or look at electric vehicles."

Mr Strahan said his organisation had an updated version of the Nottingham Declaration, which asks councils to address climate change. Coun Wilmott will be asked to sign up to it.