12/01/2017 Reporting Scotland

Will converts, talking to the man who brought the art

with the First Minister facing a claim that lives could be put

at risk, because of delays in creating four new specialist

trauma centres at hospitals across Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon says it's correct to take time

Here's our political editor Brian Taylor.

Here is the First Minister touring one in Dundee.

They deal with casualties from major incidents.

Plans to upgrade and integrate them were due

Communities have been expecting these centres for two

years and are now told to wait at least another three.

I think they deserve a fuller explanation.

Labour spotlighted Aberdeen and said an

enhanced trauma centre there was vital to cope

with emergencies that might arise in the North Sea.

The life-saving medics told me what they're

telling the Government, more delays will cost lives.

The First Minister said initial plans had been

But they decided to stick with four centres.

We are not talking about creating from scratch four new

facilities that currently don't exist.

These four hospitals in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and

Edinburgh already provide excellent trauma care.

continuing to enhance what they do and to join up the services they

provide with the services that other hospitals provide and with the

service the ambulance service provides in an integrated network.

These were robust exchanges, reflecting the emotive nature of the

The opposition said a promise has been broken.

But Nicola Sturgeon said that a plan had been

sensibly restructured in the light of advice

Snow and ice have caused disruption on Scotland's

roads today with a spate of accidents and delays.

Winter in Scotland - a season with many different faces.

The picturesque, capable of turning into

On the M74 this morning the conditions brought

Across the country the snow has been patchy.

But where it's fallen it has caused problems.

Here just outside Dunblane you see the kind of

problems that drivers have been seeing.

It took six hours to free this delivery van.

And Sir Chris Hoy was rescued by a gritter after his car spun off

But the general picture for those monitoring major roads was

We have had to deal with a number of incidents,

some closed roads, we have had to deploy our gritters

in fact we had 241 gritters out last night and we dealt with temperatures

As those gritters were being put to work, the impact

In the Highlands and Dumfries and Galloway

Some ferry services to the islands were cancelled.

Rough seas hinting at what lies ahead for some - strong

winds, snow and ice all feature in a series

of weather warnings that last until tomorrow evening.

Staying mindful of what a Scottish winter is

More than 500 jobs are to go at Kwik Fit Insurance Services

in North Lanarkshire, after attempts to find

Staff at the Uddingston contact centre were told it

Owner Ageas said it had suffered the consequences of a change

Ageas will now focus on finding alternative work for the 521 staff

Yesterday's incident, which saw a lorry blown over

on the Forth Road Bridge and the ensuing travel disruption,

has raised questions about whether lorry drivers

ignore warnings because of pressure to meet deadlines.

As John McManus reports that's the claim of one driver who's been

It was different on Wednesday, when the

Forth Road Bridge was closed because of this accident.

But it is not the first time high-sided vehicles have been

This driver who was caught up in yesterday's delays says

industry colleagues are under pressure.

Our customer pays for the transport and they say to the

company, if the load isn't there by the time

that we stipulate, then you will be fined.

IE, money will be taken off of our agreed price.

That, they project that pressure on to the driver.

There are no official figures on how many HGV ignore high

But the police were sufficiently concerned about the

dangers to lorries that it launched a campaign in October.

The company running the Forth Road Bridge said

it passes details of incidents to the police,

It only takes one HGV to bring the bridge to a closure and the

consequences of that we saw yesterday.

And it was reliant on the drivers following the signage.

Otherwise one HGV can close the bridge.

This industry body posts advice on driving.

Drivers are not under pressure from operators to

ignore road traffic signs and any safety advice.

Across Scotland, high-sided vehicles and high winds

The punctiality and reliability of train services in Scotland have

improved over the last month according to figures

But although it's the third period in a row that the company has

reported an improvement it's still operating below the target set

The timely arrival of a train during a snow flurry in Glasgow today.

The punctuality of services got better,

but they're still below the targets set by the Government.

We are not at the level we want to be at.

What we are busy with is a rolling programme

that will continuously improve punctuality.

In the last month almost 90% of services ran within

Which ScotRail say is proof they're heading in the right direction.

You can get to where you want to go easily.

When there has been delays, there is replacement buses

and I can't say we have been stuck anywhere.

We could probably do with having slightly nicer trains I would

Some new trains are promised from September.

But issues like the signalling fault at Haymarket

yesterday will continue to put a dent in the figures.

Milngavie station - one of many stations where

services were disrupted throughout the Central belt.

This is a busy commuter line and one traveller said

It used to be that the service was generally very reliable.

And now every week I often get a taxi home

from work if the trains are significantly delayed.

Events on the network can affect services anywhere

and that is what you get when you have a network as busy as ours.

So we have a total focus to minimise the effect

of signalling failures or rolling stock failures.

Last week's disruption at Airdrie as a child's

scooter was thrown onto overhead lines.

ScotRail says things will continue to improve.

Their challenge is to convince their customers of that.

An agreement has been reached to ensure that foreign workers

on freight boats serving Orkney and Shetland are paid

This cargo boat waits for a weather window to sail to Aberdeen.

But there is good news for the crew on board.

An agreement has been reached to ensure

all the seafarers are paid at least the minimum wage.

And a new charter arrangement will see the operators

of the Lifeline ferry contract take over the running of cargo vessels.

The crew were being paid less than the minimum wage.

As soon I became aware of the situation, we

now have agreement in place to pay at least the minimum wage.

The RMT union has launched a high-profile

They called on the Scottish Government to intervene.

They held a protest at the quayside in Aberdeen and marched

If you had let us know were coming today, we

could have done our homework and found out exactly what the issue is.

However, it is a Scottish Government contract

and RMT remain absolutely convinced and certain

that the rates of pay that are collectively bargained by this

The new contract comes into force next month.

Time now for the weather outlook for tonight and tomorrow.

on. It is a cold and icy night for some.

I hear low warning is enforced. As that rain moves south, it will turn

to snow. Over the north, this is the next few hours if you are driving,

atrocious conditions on some of the roads with blisters likely and is

now being blown around by severe gales. Very wintry indeed. --

blizzards. Creating quickly tomorrow but in this week still some snow

showers and windy conditions, especially on the coast. For many it

is a cold and icy start. Temperatures around one or two

Celsius. Further north, a sprinkling of snow showers across the

north-east and north-west. Very windy indeed, especially around the

coast. Those big waves are likely to crash over at times, potentially

dangerous at the coast. For most, a bright, sunny and crisp day but icy

in places and quite chilly despite the wind is dying down. South of the

border, a wintry start but largely dry. It will be chilly with those

north, north-west wind is -- wins. Snow showers for parts of Northern

Ireland and the north-west of Scotland. Temperatures are around

three Celsius but I don the wind-chill. Snow showers drifts off

into parts of your shirt and Dumfries and Galloway and the East.

Another cold day on Saturday. Some sunshine and perhaps a few showers.

Turning milder by Sunday. That's Reporting Scotland. From everyone on

the late team, good