Several parks closed over fears trees could be felled by 80 miles per hour gusts

Derry City and Strabane District Council officers are currently monitoring the situation after meteorologists at Met Éireann and the Met Office issued national warnings and predicted northwesterly winds of 55 to 65 miles per hour with potential gusts of 70 to 80 miles per hour in some places.

The council has urged the public to keep safe and take the necessary precautions to secure their properties as there is a potential for damage to buildings such as tiles blown from roofs and debris.

St. Columb’s Park. Brooke Park, Claudy Country Park and the Bay Road Park were closed to the public on New Year’s Eve morning for health and safety reasons.

This will be reviewed during the course of the day by council officers.

All other sites will be open as normal provided it is safe to do so and will be monitored on an ongoing basis.

The council is encouraging the public not to go near downed trees, Christmas lights etc and to report to directly via [email protected] or Tel. 07718695014.

The public are also advised that it is still experiencing some ongoing operational issues with its bin collection services as a result of the recent icy weather which has had an impact on some services particularly in rural areas.

Members of the public in rural areas whose bins should have been completed on Thursday are advised that they will be collected today Saturday and another attempt will be made to collect those bins on Tuesday January 2nd.

Due to operational issues, not all of last Tuesday’s food caddies will be collected on Saturday and any caddies not collected will be emptied on Tuesday January 2nd.

All bin collections will return to normal from Tuesday, Council appreciates the public’s continued patience in dealing with the backlog in recent days.

Further info on Council opening times over the holiday period are available onwww.derrystrabane.com/openinghours.