Weather alert – School closures for Thursday 8 December

All of Renfrewshire’s schools and pre-five establishments will close at 1pm tomorrow (Thursday 8 December). All special schools, including Hollybush Pre-Five centre will be closed all day.

The decision to close the schools was taken after the Met Office issued a red alert, warning of gale force winds potentially reaching 90mph.

The Renfrewshire Council Schools’ Music Service Christmas Concert, scheduled to take place in Paisley Town Hall tomorrow evening has also been cancelled and will be rescheduled.

Red alert warnings are highly unusual with only one or two being issued a year.

Councillor Lorraine Cameron, Convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Education Policy Board, said, “The safety of our pupils is our chief concern. We have been given a clear warning from the Met Office to expect severe weather that could damage buildings and cut power supplies.

“We realise that this decision will cause parents some inconvenience but in these circumstances we have no other choice given the severity of the weather predicted.”

The Met Office warning said, “Through the day on Thursday winds will strengthen with severe and potentially damaging and dangerous gales developing through the central belt during the afternoon and into the evening rush hour with winds as high as 80 mph, and a risk of some gusts to 90 mph. Transport disruption, including complete closure of bridges, power supply disruption and structural damage are all possible with gusts of this magnitude.”

Press release issued: Wednesday 7 December 2011, 5pm

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Please also in any tweets to keep people updated of the changing weather and hazards to motorists etc, if you are tweeting please use the hashtag #paisleyweather so we can inform people of the conditions asp..

Also keep an eye on the Met office website which is fantastic for realtime weather information http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/st/paisley_forecast_weather.html