Who will pay for all the public services vehicles?

What all this suggests then, is that the Council stocked for, say, 3-4 days of snow fall and about 2-3 weeks of near zero, or subzero temperatures then?

I stand corrected. I'm sure QwikFit would be delighted if such a law was brought in

I'm sure they would. It seems the best solution though and it's tried and tested in Europe.

Yep it was me... Having lived for several years in Germany (when The Greens were in charge and no salt was used on roads .......in winters MUCH more severe than this pathetic effort ) when the roads were covered in compacted snow you either chose to buy some winter tyres, used snow chains, or left the car at home. On the spot fines issued by the polizei if you happened to get into trouble and were causing a problem for other road users who WERE complying with the law.

It was TD&H who stated that something would have to change if this was going to be a pattern for winters in the future:If that's the case then winter tyres by law has got to be a solution when road conditions dictate.

Of course we could go the whole hog on the Continental Driving thang and also start driving on the right......

And possibly why it is more deserving in that country!

On one hand, people 'defend' the strategic level of salt/gritting stock held by the council in extraordinary weather conditions. Then the next moment, those same people suggest the public should be obliged to prepare for it in the same way as countries who ordinarily have much more severe weather (than we do)!

Salt is for chips.... NOT for roads....

Fair enough, so long as we are all advised, warned and, maybe, experience a tax discount (through savings in salt/grit stocks), to help everyone finance it. Even some people who work in chip-shops and supermarkets need to drive.

At least this time we have had fair warning about the snow. The last batch seemed to catch everyone out.

The concern next, of course, is what happens if we get a quick thaw? Indeed, what about national gas levels?

Much of the debate really centres on the Council's inability to maintain the status quo whatever the conditions. Life ain't like that! Apart from those who are unable to help themselves - should we all (in business AND personal terms) have contingency plans in place so we can cope with extraordinary situations? Salting roads is not the only answer.

There is a lot of snow out there today

Yes, what idiot in the council ordered all this snow! Heads should roll!!!

Oh and surprise surprise the schools are shut!!!

Actually, on this occasion, I don't blame them.

Congratulations to the woman who walked in to town this morning from Greenham wearing high heels! Bonus man points for you dear!!!

There's some things that severe weather won't stop.

Does anyone know what food stocks are like at the supermarkets?

I will need some soonish and will make sure I get a good stockpile.

Too late, all sold out.

Don't forget birds also suffer in these conditions.

I know - I saw one with a particularly short skirt this morning. She must have been freezing!

Actually she was on her way home from work

I wonder if it was the one I saw in heels?

Food wise, there was an outbreak of "panic buying" (or in shopping as it used to be known) at Tesco's last night! I saw a person with at meals for at least two days in their basket - greedy sods!!!! Wife went to Sainsbury's today and it was pretty well stocked.

Couple of points about some of the posts.
Winters getting worse, Sorry, I thought it was global warming we were concerned about.

Winter tyres are probably a fine thing on the continent but we are an Island with the warm Atlantic keeping us well above the sort of continuous low temperatures that central Europe and the mountainous regions suffer. When it snows here, it's normally all gone a couple of days later, making winter tyres a bit of an overkill.

There seem to be a lot of posters who believe that the gritters haven't been out. So then where has the salt gone, WBC car park ??

The councils are only allowed to keep a certain level of road salt under government guidelines. This council had the maximum holding, I understand, which may be sufficient normally but once every five or six years it all goes a bit pear shaped.

Nobody seems to have considered the ecological damage done by tons of salt washing off the roads and into the system with one coverage, let alone with two or three times the normal amount of gritting being carried out or even more if some people had their way..

I know it's nice to have a scapegoat every time we are inconvenienced so it might as well be WBC as I think they are used to it by now.