Philip McKay

Aberdeenshire manages one of Scotland's longest and most exposed road networks and has developed a distinctive resilience model in response. This session sets out how the council moved from reactive response to planned readiness, using real winter incidents to build a repeatable framework for future seasons.

• The "back to black" approach: shifting from reactive response to structured recovery and planned readiness 
• Building a focused winter resilience plan to keep towns connected during closures caused by snow and flooding 
• Data-driven response in practice: triaging welfare calls, using citizen-submitted geolocated photos and automated GIS mapping to close data gaps and speed up incident response
• Practical lessons including rescheduling driver hours to protect fleet capacity, and mobilising community and volunteer support during disruption