MP PRESSES MINISTER ON REVIEW OF COLD WEATHER PAYMENTS

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 11th Oct 2001

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP John Thurso will next week press Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alistair Darling, MP to announce the outcome of the Met Office review of the operation of the Cold Weather Payment Scheme in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

The MP said:

"The Met Office has conceded that there are two distinct climatic areas in the constituency.

Influenced by the Gulf Stream, conditions along the West and North seaboard are very different from those experienced in the landward areas: ten miles inland there are glens which never see sunlight during the winter months and where over extended periods temperatures are constantly at or just above freezing. Even on the flatter North Coast there are very great differences in temperature between the coastal strip and the central mass some ten miles inland.

The Met Office made a "judgement" that temperatures recorded at the Wick Airport weather station were considered most representative of the greater part of the area but it has yet to provide any statistical data to support that judgement."